Part 34 (1/2)

”To-ma-wa-ri-to-mo.” Riki sounded out the syllables. ”He is Windwolf's counterpart among the oni.”

Remembering Chiyo's comment earlier, Tinker asked, ”Lord Tomtom?”

Riki gave a very human shrug. ”That's what those of us born on Earth tend to call him.”

No wonder he pa.s.sed so easily for human if he grew up around them. ”That's why you speak English so well?”

”Yes. I was born in Berkeley, California.”

”Hatched! Hatched!” Chiyo barked. ”If you're going to go all truthful with her, then tell it all. Your mother popped out an egg.” Chiyo measured out a stunningly large sphere with her fingers. ”And brooded on it to keep it warm, and when the time came, listened all so close so she could break you out of your sh.e.l.l, and as a child they kept jesses on your feet to keep you from picking your nose with your toes.”

Tinker glanced downwards and noticed for the first time that Riki's toes were stunningly long, thin, agile-looking and only three in number. ”Your mother wasn't the woman killed when Lain was crippled; she couldn't have pa.s.sed the physicals as human.”

Riki looked at Chiyo in cold rage, and said, ”I hope you are keeping your focus. You know how angry Lord Tomtom would be if this failed.”

Chiyo went white and silent. For a minute only the tinny music from Riki's earbud could be heard, and then like a bubble breaking, the background noise from the garden started again. Chiyo stared at the ground, panting like a frightened animal.

”I don't understand,” Tinker said. ”If you can get to Earth, Elfhome, and back again, why does he need me to build a gate?”

Chiyo giggled and murmured something in their own tongue.

Riki shot her an irritated look and explained, ”When the elves destroyed the door from our world to Earth, they stranded a large group of tengu and others in China. We've lived in secret among humans, hiding our differences.”

He lifted his foot up, flexing his toes to demonstrate what differences he meant. ”Like the elves, we're immortal on our own world, and long lived on Earth. We waited for our chance to return to our own land, our own people. When the gate opened the door between Earth and Elfhome, it also opened a door to Onihida, but it's inconveniently placed. We don't have the ability to move an army through it.”

The seer's words went through her mind. There is a door, open but not open...darkness presses against the frame but can not pa.s.s through There is a door, open but not open...darkness presses against the frame but can not pa.s.s through. The seer must have been talking about the unusable door. But what the h.e.l.l did the rest mean? The light beyond is too brilliant; it burns the beast. The light beyond is too brilliant; it burns the beast.

Chiyo murmured something to Riki which surprised him.

Tinker was tempted to kick her. ”I don't like it when people talk about me in front of me.”

”It's better you don't understand her poison,” Riki said.

So, the seer was right. She was going to be the pivot. ”You want me to betray Elfhome?”

”I know what they've done to you. They took you and changed you to make you loyal to them. All the while they held you at the palace, I was with your cousin, watching him go quietly insane with worry whether they'd bring you back or just decide that you were too dangerous to allow to live.”

”Windwolf would never-” She bit off the retort. Riki had no reason to tell her the truth and every reason to lie. ”Oilcan didn't say anything to me last night.”

”He's a fair man. He wouldn't try to poison you against your husband, not even if what he had to say was the truth.”

Tinker backed away from him, shaking her head. ”You've lied to me since the first moment I met you. You're probably lying to me now. You'll say anything to get me to help you.”

Riki lunged and caught hold of her tightly. ”Yes, I would!” he cried, looking pained. ”I'd say anything because I know what Lord Tomtom will do to get his way-and I'd rather not see you go through that.”

”I believe Lord Tomawaritomo has arranged a demonstration.” Chiyo turned to speak to one of the guards.

With a thin shriek of terror, the little oni who had knocked her over the cliff was brought forward between two of the ma.s.sive guards. He begged in the oni tongue, sobbing.

”They're going to remove the bones from his left arm,” Chiyo told Tinker in a casual tone, as if what was about to happen had no more import than picking wildflowers. Tinker had a sudden sympathy for black-eyed susans. ”All of them. While he's awake.”

While the guards pinned the oni down, a third, wizened-dwarf of an oni with a bloodstained leather ap.r.o.n and bright sharp knives started to cut.

After putting the earbud back in his ear, Riki held her still, made her watch.

Tinker curled her arms up tight against her chest, trying hard not to cry. If she had still been on Elfhome, she might have been able to defy them, clinging to the hope that Windwolf and Oilcan would be there to rescue her, or even that she could escape. All alone on this strange world, every hand upraised against her, she couldn't find the courage.

When it was done, Riki said, ”Lord Tomtom expects results.”

Tinker was still numb as they escorted her to the workshop. Riki tried to guide her with a hand to her elbow. The touch made her aware of the bones within her arm, and she jerked away from him. Something in her face-either her initial fear or the anger that followed it-made him look unhappy. Good. She stomped after Chiyo, who minced down the hallways at a surprising speed.

Riki noticed it too. ”Why are you going so fast, Taji?”

A sharp retort in the oni tongue from the female made Riki laugh.

”What?” Tinker demanded, angry now. Angry that they were talking in a language she couldn't understand. Angry that Riki could laugh after watching that that. Angry that she had been too scared to tell them no.

Riki grinned but would not say.

After all she had seen since she woke up-the castle they were in and the city outside it-Tinker was surprised by the workshop. It was a vast Earth-like warehouse, not much different from the one that the EIA had used to store the smugglers' goods. The one ma.s.sive room was five hundred feet long, three hundred wide, and perhaps three stories tall. High above were sunlit windows, but the lower windows were all painted black; great floodlights fought the resulting gloom. What was it that they didn't want her to see? All the windows up to this point had looked out over the cliff with the oni city far below. Perhaps the painted windows were at ground level.

The only outside door was padlocked shut and wired with an alarm.

The floor was an oil-treated wood, swept spotless. Workbenches lined the outside walls, leaving the center of the huge room open for large equipment to be a.s.sembled. As she toured through the various workstations, she found that all the tools were human-made.

She picked up a cordless screwdriver. ”This stuff is all from Earth.”

”Unfortunately, your technology is far in advance of ours.”

”How did you get it here?”

”One piece at a time,” Riki said. ”We've had twenty years to put together this workshop.”

”All a.s.suming that you'd find a genius to put it all together?”

”We're patient; humans are creative. Sooner or later, we'd find someone to suit our needs.”

Tinker flipped the on switch on the drill press, and it roared to life. She glanced behind the machine to see that it was plugged into a standard 220 outlet. ”Where is the power coming from?”

”We've got a power plant,” Riki said after a moment. ”It runs everything in here. Lord Tomtom is quite thorough and gets results. Everything has been well tested, and that's all you need to know.”

”So I'm supposed to build a gate out of scratch, something I've never tried, that no one else on the planet has managed. Am I to spin straw into gold too?”

”According to the CMU entrance test, you understand the gate theory well enough to create a functioning gate.”

So much for the NSA keeping that news from leaking out. ”Theoretical design and actual working prototype can be years apart.”