Страница 80 из 106
“I am listening, Ila.”
“This watcher of ours, this long-trusted watcher, thisi
As if she were the most i
“Ila.”That was Ian. “You should have told us the moment there was such a request made of you. Why should you keep it secret?”
“This person claimed it was investigatory, and that you were not to be brought in. How were we to know if your own watchers were in question? You, honest Ian, we did not doubt. But the watchers, who can ever know?”
Hati looked at him, that long-eyed sidelong look. She had heard. Hati had never trusted Luz, and least of all trusted the Ila at any time. It was a plausible story…if there had not been ages of history behind it.
“Now,”the Ila said, “someone has attempted to kill this Earth lord. We have not breached the Treaty. Their notion of our deception is utterly false; and they have attempted to blame this i
Marak listened, and met Hati’s burning gaze the while. There was a small silence from Ian and Luz.
“I will find Procyon,” Marak said. The beshta under him, at a standstill, shifted uneasily, as, far distant, he heard a stone roll and saw it make a track down a sandy slope.
A very minor quake. But the minor shiftings of the earth no longer alarmed them, in the scale of things. The Ila and what was happening back at the Refuge had sent out tremors of their own. And a hapless boy was involved in things far, far older than his knowledge, where it was likely those in power had set him far down the list of their concerns.
“Ian,”Luz said urgently. “Come home. Come home,now. I need you.”
“I would, I assure you. But I’m trying to put together a mission to get Marak back.”
“I shall deal with my own situation,” Marak said. “Go home, Ian.” If Luz forgot she was angry at Ian, if she forgot about the tribeswoman, then she was truly alarmed, whether by what the Ila had just said, or by what she feared the Ila might have done without her knowledge, or at the situation she herself was in. If the makers were indeed loose in the heavens, with the ondatand the rest of the powers alarmed, there was ample reason for Luz to reconsider her quarrel with Ian and question her alliance with the Ila before everything slid to perdition.
“We are quite enough to deal with this,”the Ila said. “If we approach Brazis, we can settle matters without Ian.”
That might be, but Ian had heard that. “I’m on my way.”
“Nonsense,”the Ila said, irate, and pain lanced through Marak’s head.
He fired back, spiked the contact as high as he could, and gave the Ila as good as he got, reckless, for the moment, of Hati on the system.
Hewas as near a relay station as the Ila was near the center at the Refuge. Hethreaded his way through Ian’s contact and into the main systems.
And having done that, he broke through all the relays and onto the uplink. Auguste was not his target. Not at all. He used a different code, one he had known a long, long time ago.
“Brazis,” he said, in no mood now to temporize. “Answer me! Where is Procyon?”
THE SCISSORS HIT the floor. An orchid leaf fell. Brazis himself put a hand to his face and fell into the adjacent chair. The system shielded him, but the tap flash hurt to the roots of his teeth.
“Lord Marak,” he said. “I hear you. Enough! I hear!”
“Brazis.”Marak was clearly not in a reasoning mood. “Is there an outbreak of makers in the heavens?”
“No,” Brazis said, too-quick denial of what he could not wholly dismiss as a threat, denial to the wrong party. He amended that. “We don’t believe it’s actual. It’s a fear Earth has.”
“Where is Procyon and what has he to do with such things?”
“Lord Marak.” Brazis’s mind raced. The tap system was adaptive. It tried to cooperate. Even when the system had the spike mechanically damped, its inclination was to respond and attempt to go on working. “The Ila’s senior tap is dead, Marak-omi. Be careful. I hear you. Quieter, sir. Quieter. The system is bringing you through quite clearly.”
“Where is Procyon?”
Where is Procyon?encompassed a world of trouble. Marak had clearly reached the end of his patience. In answer to that question, he might know down to a quarter block on Blunt whereProcyon had been, but Procyon was not there, not now. Agents, racing to the area, had failed to locate him. Jewel, stationed with Reaux, reported Reaux’s men hadn’t snatched him…not that Reaux knew about.
“I don’t know where he is at this exact moment, lord Marak. I am alarmed by his situation. I do assure you we’re trying everything to find him.”
A small silence. “I find no response from him.”
“Nor do we.” It was the truth, and it could mean Procyon Stafford was unconscious, or dead. “We’re actively searching the system. We know where he was a while ago. He’s not there now. How are youfaring in the meantime, sir? Are you safe? We’re extremely concerned about your situation.”
“We are not in immediate difficulty, lord Brazis, but the stink of flood is strong on the wind, and the quakes continue, one after the other, bringing down rocks from the cliffs. I am not in great patience as matters stand. Now I hear trouble in your vicinity and trouble at the Refuge. Is there or is there not an outbreak of makers?”
“Earth fears there is. I entirely doubt it. Complicating our situation, someone has attempted to kill Earth’s representative, who was here investigating the matter, but—” Dared he be honest with Marak, who did not forget, or readily forgive? The ground he stood on was less steady than Marak’s. “I have a strong suspicion it was another Earthman who did it, a traitor who wants a foothold here, perhaps one of the man’s own allies. We have a complex and dangerous situation, and it may involve a ploy to establish someone’s power or presence here, endangering the Treaty.”