Part 18 (1/2)
”All right.” He set her back onto her feet. ”Let's go to the Faire.”
The first booth beyond the gate was a portable shrine to Redoeya; she paused to clap and bow to the statue and drop a dime into his silver-strewn hands. She considered, eyes closed, hands clasped. What was it that she wanted? In earlier years she had prayed for things as simple as winning something from one of the booths. Searching her heart, she found only conflicting desires. Finally she prayed simply: May I figure out what it is I want in life. May I figure out what it is I want in life.
”Why do you do that?” Nathan had hung back, looking a mix of annoyed and bewildered.
”I always do that.” She headed for the sweet bun stands as Faire custom number two; one needed to get them fresh and hot. ”Tooloo said that if Grandpa wasn't going to put me in the protection of human G.o.ds, then she'd see me protected by the elfin ones.”
He made a face.
”What?”
”Oh, I was fairly sure you weren't Catholic, but I expected you to be at least Christian.”
”And?”
”Nothing.”
Nathan bought sweet buns for both of them, and they drifted on, pulled by the tidal force of moving bodies.
There was more of everything at the Faire than she'd ever seen before. Another row had been added to the basic grid to accommodate the additional booths. Despite the extra s.p.a.ce, more people strolled through the aisles: elves dressed in human fas.h.i.+ons, humans dressed in elfin fas.h.i.+on, parents with infants, couples of mixed races, and most surprisingly of all, armed guards of both races. Tinker had never seen on-duty guards at the Faire before. She wasn't sure if the tension she felt came from the armed presence, or her own sudden unease with Nathan.
”I can't believe there are armed guards here,” she said to Nathan as they pa.s.sed the third guard, her dark EIA uniform and flat black gun a black hole for attention.
”The viceroy was nearly murdered twice,” Nathan said. ”And then there's the whole thing with the smuggling ring. With this many people in one place, it's the smart thing to do.”
”I don't like it.”
”You wouldn't have ended up tangling with that saurus if there'd been more than Windwolf and his bodyguard at the Faire.”
Tinker flashed to that day, the saurus standing with a foot pinning the lower half of Windwolf's bodyguard to the ground and his upper half in its mouth. In an image that haunted her nightmares, the saurus pulled upward, stretching the guard's body obscenely long before shaking its head, tearing the male in half. She shuddered. ”Let's not talk about that.”
But once called up, she couldn't stop thinking about the day. Strange how she couldn't recall Windwolf's location until he was yelling in her face to run, and how, even now, she didn't remember him as wounded, only angry.
In a sudden rewrite of history that was almost dizzying, she realized that Windwolf had lost a friend that day, not only torn to shreds but also eaten. How long had they known each other? A hundred years? Poor Windwolf! No wonder he had been so angry.
”Guess.” Nathan interrupted her thoughts.
”What?”
”So guess what they named the baby.”
Baby? She glanced around and spotted a human woman showing off her baby to curious elves. She had always thought it odd that elves seemed fascinated by babies, but considering what Windwolf had said, a young adult elf may have never seen an infant in his or her life. She had to admit there was something intriguing about the miniaturization of a being that babies represented, but they were, on a whole, too fragile for her to deal with. She supposed that if someday she had ”kids” she would have to deal with ”babies”-an utterly frightening thought.
Nathan was still waiting for her to guess the baby's name and was growing impatient.
”I don't know the mother. Who is she?”
”What?” A frown quirked at the corner of Nathan's mouth as he scanned the brightly dressed crowd. ”No. Not her,” he said, spotting the baby being pa.s.sed around the knot of adults. ”My sister's baby. Guess what they called my niece.”
Oh, yes, his sister Ginny lived in Bethel Park. She had been waiting for Shutdown to go to Earth in order to have her second child, but the baby came a week early, and she delivered at Mercy Hospital. When Tinker had talked to Nathan before Shutdown his sister hadn't named the baby yet.
”Oh. Um. After you?” Was there a female version of ”Nathan”?
”No. Mercy. Mercy Anne.”
Yuk! Tinker tried to keep her face neutral and made polite noises. Luckily they'd collided with the ma.s.s of people listening to the musicians onstage at the edge of the Faire ground. She didn't recognize the group's name, but they were a common mixed-race band, blending the raw American rock beat and guitars with traditional elfin instruments and melodies. They featured an olianuni olianuni, and an obvious master playing it, his mallets a blur as he hammered. The guitars snarled around the rich deep bell-like melody beat out by the olianuni olianuni player. The lead singer was human, growling out a song about the shortness of human life and the reckless abandonment in which the race embraced its fate. In a high pure counter, the elfin backup singer chanted out the thousand blessings of patience. player. The lead singer was human, growling out a song about the shortness of human life and the reckless abandonment in which the race embraced its fate. In a high pure counter, the elfin backup singer chanted out the thousand blessings of patience.
”Want to dance?” Tinker shouted to Nathan, bobbing in place to the beat of the music.
”Actually, I was working my way to something. Can we find someplace quieter to talk?”
”Okay.” Still moving with the beat of the song, she threaded her way through the crowd, trusting him to find a way to follow.
”You know”-he caught up with her beside a fis.h.i.+ng booth, where people were trying to fish brightly gleaming pesantiki pesantiki out of a pool with small paper nets-”if you let me go first, I'd open up a path for you to follow.” out of a pool with small paper nets-”if you let me go first, I'd open up a path for you to follow.”
”Then all I could see would be your back. You can see over me. Here, let's sit.”
The next booth down was the okonomiyaki okonomiyaki cart that usually sat in Market Square. Side benches folded down from it, and there were banners hanging down from the bamboo awning to give the deception of privacy. cart that usually sat in Market Square. Side benches folded down from it, and there were banners hanging down from the bamboo awning to give the deception of privacy.
”You're still hungry?” Nathan asked.
”I didn't get to eat a lot at the enclave.” She felt a little guilty. Enclaves charged a set price that was rather steep. She held up the bag of silver dimes. ”Let me pay.”
”No, I'll pay.” Nathan thumbed out some coins to the Asian man on the other side of the griddle.
They ordered their toppings, and the chef started to mix up the eggs, water, flour, and cabbage for the pancake.
”So?”
”The family across the street from my sister decided to emigrate back to the States, and they signed over their house to the EIA. They had a nice place: a four-bedroom Cape Cod with a two-car garage, and a natural-gas furnace with a wood burner backup system.”
”Your point being?”
”Well, it got me thinking,” Nathan said. ”The house would be a nice starter place for you and me.”
”What?” Her cry startled the chef.
”It's a nice place, well maintained. We could nab it now and move in later.”
She could only stare at him in surprise.
”We put up curtains,” Nathan said. ”Buy a few pieces of furniture, and no one would know the difference. It needs sprucing up, so we take our time painting and such.”
”You want to live together?”
Nathan took her hand. ”I want to marry you.”
”Whoa, whoa, whoa. What happened to waiting until I'm nineteen? I thought this was just a date.”