The Ringworld Throne

She looked over her shoulder. The river sounds would drown her lowered voice. “Sabarokaresh, I need your help. You and Kaywerbrimmis and Chitakumishad.”

Barok continued his work. “What kind of help?”

“Come with me when I look inside Cruiser Two.”

His hands stopped then. He looked around. “I don’t think we should disturb Chit.”

“No. Do you think he’ll get that to work?”

“Might drown himself. There’s Kay over there. Unusual view.”

Kaywerbrimmis was lying on his belly, mostly in the water, drawing maps in the mud with his fingertips. An unidentifiable River Person was advising him. Vala pulled herself up on his other side and asked, “Learning anything?”

“Maybe.”

“Give me a few breaths of your time, me and Barok?”

He looked around, studied her face, decided not to ask. jumped to his feet and was pulling her along, as naked as she and Barok. There was no chance for Vala to go to her piled clothes.

She might have liked going naked, if the rain would ease off. Was clothing really that dangerous? But it wasn’t just a matter of keeping clean. A vampire night learn that there was blood underneath the scent of woven cloth or cured leather.

It wasn’t her clothes she wanted. It was her pack.

A pack would look incongruous on a naked woman.

… Oh, no doubt it would be all right.

When the three were out of anyone’s earshot, Vala asked, “Kay, how did Warvia act—”

“Rished with all of us.”

She stepped up onto the ru

“It did. A few times she tried to go outside. Maybe just to get clear of us, maybe to go to the vampires. They would have had her anyway. She’s wrong about being immune.”

“Kay, nobody believed that—”

“Warvia did. I couldn’t let her out. Come daylight, we tried to calm her down.” He was talking through clenched teeth. “No good. Maybe a woman. Or someone who wasn’t there. Could get her talking.”

“I’ll try,” Vala said. She opened the trick lock and entered the payload shell.

It wasn’t quite dark. Light glared down from the gun tower. Vala sniffed at the ghosts of old cargoes and waited for her eyes to adjust.

Gunpowder. Minch and pepperleek. Great masses of grass for Twuk and Paroom. Soap: strange stuff made by a species far to starboard. She sniffed for old stenches, the fear-sweat of people hiding from attackers, agony of the wounded; but those had been cleaned away. There was no smell of blood.

She climbed the ladder to the ca

Kaywerbrimmis touched her ankle. She half sobbed, “Oh flup, oh flup, I was so sure we’d find everything covered with blood! Tegger must have guessed, and how could Warvia lie to him? Warvia!”

Warvia’s feet dangled listless before the ca

Warvia made no answer.

“Well, how’s he taking it?”

Warvia spoke. “Dead inside.”

“Warvia, cherished ally, nobody really thought you’d be immune to vampire scent.”

“I thought he’d kill me,” Warvia said. “It never even crossed his mind.”

“Can we do anything for him?”

“He wants to be alone, I guess.”

“For you?”

“So do I.”

Vala slid down the ladder.

“He can’t lose us,” Kaywerbrimmis said. “He can follow the river, follow the wheel ruts. Maybe he just wants some time to digest what’s happened. Rethink.”

She nodded in the gloom.

“Vala, we should get the wagons moving.”

“I’ll take the tail position.” While the rest got Cruiser One ready to roll, maybe she could search out Tegger. She didn’t believe it. “Keep a close eye on Warvia. Or shall I take her?”

“Take her. You’re the boss, and she’s got the best eyes—”

“That isn’t—”

“It’s a decent excuse. But she might talk to you because …” He stalled.

“Because she hasn’t rished with anyone in Cruiser One.”

“Just so.”

“You’re a male, Kay—”

“Boss, I just can’t guess how Tegger’s feeling now. This doesn’t happen to Reds.”

Tegger dropped silently from the ca

Tegger remained crouched. He whispered, “Towels and a pepperleek. Soap. Clean clothes. My sword. I’m following the river, so I won’t need the canteen, so I filled it with fuel. That can be useful stuff.”

“Not for drinking, I hope.”

“Fuel burns.” None of your business!

“Is it random killing you [sic—should be “your”] plan? Or something more organized?”

“I don’t know anything. They live under a factory city, a big floating structure. Whisper, if we—”

“If you.”

“If I can’t destroy their refuge, I accomplish nothing. If I don’t … if I can’t do something … large?”

“For your honor?”

“Yes. What Warvia did—I am nothing now. I must make myself something.”

“Wish.”

“To destroy the Shadow Nest.”

“You shall.”

“Make it fall. Crush them underneath.”

“That could be difficult.”

“Difficult?” Tegger shouldered his pack. He noticed three naked Machine People entering Cruiser Two. That was harmless, but they might search the other cruiser next. Tegger eased away into the bush.

He spoke to himself, or to the empty air. “Difficult. It’s impossible! I can’t invade a vampire nest. If I could get above them, onto that floating factory—but I’d have to fly.”

Whisper: “What is Valavirgillin hiding?”

Huh? “Machine People have their secrets,” Tegger said.

Whisper: “She knew that you and Warvia would succumb to the vampire lure. Still, she hopes that her little army can win. Does she know something that nobody else does?”

Tegger’s mind was trying to shut down; the moan was rising in his throat. They’d hear him. Find him. His mind, he must not lose his mind to his body’s hysterics. Think.

His first coherent thought in some time was that he had just heard Whisper’s first real command, however phrased.

Louis Wu of the Ball People had visited Ginjerofer’s tribe. Valavirgillin knew him, too … knew him better, since rishathra was among her skills. Had Louis Wu revealed something to her?

And he’d seen her naked, moments ago.

“She must have left her pack with her clothes. Whisper, where are Valavirgillin’s clothes?”

“Look along the shore … there. The pack is on the mud flat but you could reach it with a stick.”

“Whisper, I’m not a thief. I only want to look.”

The voice whispered, “What if Valavirgillin hides knowledge that would help her companions?”

“Information is property.”

Silence answered.

“Am I mad?” he asked himself. This wayspirit had done nothing Tegger’s own mind couldn’t do. What had happened to him might drive anyone mad. Was there a Whisper?

Warvia had suffered a shattering shock. What was she feeling? The horrifying truth was that she might be as crazy as him.

And Tegger was creeping through the brush like some predator, his prey a leather pack that didn’t belong to him.

Stop, listen for rustling brush, for Whisper or for his companions. Nothing.

He must already be lunatic, to suspect the Machine People woman. This was truly Valavirgillin’s war. She had involved the Ghouls, where a megalomaniac would have kept command for herself. Valavirgillin’s weaponry was worth their lives …

But here was her clothing, washed and tossed over bushes, and her backpack hung here, too. He could look.

He need not show himself. His blade had the reach. He slid its point under the strap and fished the strap to him, and slid backward on his belly into the bushes.

The pack opened out flat, like many he’d seen, but unlike those, this had a good many pockets. Leather on the outside; some very finely woven stuff as a lining. Her firestarter was as good as his own, traded from some distance away. Blanket, fancy canteen (empty), a box containing damp soap, bullets and an empty handgun.