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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Kinneman had sent thirty soldiers to infiltrate the city. Six minutes of terrible, one-sided battle later, all thirty were dead.

“The destruction is complete,” Rozhuhu said as the lightning guns finally went dark. “Do you learn your place, Roarke of the humans?”

I took a careful breath. Antagonizing the Ammei would gain me nothing, and could lose all of us a great deal. But it was still sorely tempting. “My place is at the side of Selene of the Kadolians,” I said. “May I see her?”

Rozhuhu turned to Third, and launched into yet another private conversation. This time, Second also joined in. “You will see her,” Rozhuhu said at last. “We will go now.”

“Do we meet her in the secret room?” I asked as Second and Fourth started around the outside of the room toward the exit ramp.

Rozhuhu gave a little twitch. “What secret room do you speak of?”

“The room on the north side of level three,” I said. “The big one across from the Center of Knowledge.”

He seemed to relax. “We meet Selene of the Kadolians at the Chair of Authority.”

“Which is where?”

“Follow.”

I didn’t have long to wonder where we were going, or whose authority we were talking about. The Chair of Authority turned out to be just one floor down, right below level nine’s Upper Rooms.

Like that floor, the whole level here consisted of a single room. Unlike the Upper Rooms, though, this one didn’t have any of the short dividers or multiple half rooms, but was instead a completely open area. In the center was an elaborate throne, and seated there was an old Amme with a hat that put all the others I’d seen to shame.

“Roarke of the humans,” Rozhuhu intoned as I was brought to a spot three meters in front of the throne and motioned to a halt, “present honor and respect to the First of Three.”

“I greet you, First of Three,” I said as politely as I could, given that this was the Amme who’d wanted me to learn my place through the wholesale slaughter of Kinneman’s soldiers. “Where is Selene of the Kadolians?”

There was a general stir among Rozhuhu and the others. Apparently, I wasn’t supposed to speak until I’d been spoken to. “First of Three?” I prompted.

“I’m here, Gregory,” Selene’s voice came from behind me.

I turned. Coming up the ramp were Conciliators Fearth and Uvif, with Huginn and Circe following close behind, the whole group wrapped in a six-Ammei armed escort. Behind them, looking almost like an afterthought, was Selene with her own four-Ammei guard. Fearth, Uvif, and Circe, I noted, were sending visual daggers at me; Selene’s pupils just looked tense.

There was no sign of the Iykams Fearth had brought here from the Alainn portal. My guess was that they’d probably been tossed into cold storage along with Huginn’s group.

“Are you okay?” I asked Selene.

“As bright as a Gilbert’s tit-willow,” she said. “You?”

“Feeling a bit pear-shaped,” I said, feeling my throat tighten. In one of Gilbert’s musicals—I couldn’t remember which one—one the characters had talked about a suicidal tit-willow bird. Among all our fruit-and-bird code listings, that was the most ominous one. Coupled with my use of the archaic warning term pear-shaped, it looked like neither Selene nor I was in particularly good positions. Hopefully, I could help with that.

Or else I would just make things worse. At this point, it was probably a toss-up.

“But it’s good to see you,” I added. As the incoming group reached me, I slipped between the Ammei guards and Patth and reached Selene. “I missed you.” Before anyone could say or do anything I moved in close and gave her a big hug.

With Selene’s hyperacute sense of smell, the close proximity required for a hug was stressful at best and painful at worst. But right now comfort was at the bottom of my priority list. I needed information, and I needed it without anyone else knowing what I was doing. I pressed my cheek against Selene’s, putting my lips close to her ear—

“Which is Huginn’s portal?” I breathed.

“Four o’clock,” she whispered back. “They’re giving us the serum after we talk.”

“I’ll try to fix that,” I said. “Get me Huginn’s reactions.”

A hand closed roughly around my upper arm. “That’s enough,” Huginn growled, hauling me bodily away from Selene. “This is a place of honor and reverence, not some dive where you and your female can frolic.”

“Like you should talk,” I snapped back, the retort coming out before I realized it made no sense whatsoever.

Or maybe it made sense to Huginn. I was still trying to get my feet firmly back under me when he again yanked me off-balance, this time pulling me right up against him. “What did you say?” he demanded, his face bare millimeters from mine. “What did you say?”

I was working on an answer when he dropped his voice to a whisper. “What do you need?”

“Freedom of movement,” I murmured back.

A microscopic nod. “Because no one disgraces the First of Three,” he went on at his original volume. “Understood?”

I looked over his shoulder. Everyone else in the room was staring at us, Circe and the two Patth glowering, the Ammei looking more surprised than outraged. “Understood,” I said, putting sullen acceptance into my tone. I didn’t know how far on my side Huginn was, but at this point I’d take even a fractional ally. “I apologize to the First of Three and the Ammei people if I unintentionally caused offense.”

First said something. “The First of Three accepts your apology,” Fourth said in his usual stilted English. Apparently, First didn’t have a translator of his own and had to make due with either Second’s or Third’s. “Selene of the Kadolians requests your approval. Do you grant it?”

“I am happy to offer advice,” I said. “To offer approval I must first know what it is I’m approving. Tell me about the glory of the Ammei. What is it, and what will the Ammei do with it?”

“Such is not for humans to know,” Fourth said. “That knowledge is reserved for the Ammei, the Patthaaunutth, and the Kadolians.”

“Who are, after all, the First of Three, the Second of Three, and the Third of Three,” I said. “Are they not?”

Fourth shot a look at First and Second. “That knowledge is reserved for the Ammei, the Patthaaunutth, and the Kadolians,” he repeated.

“So you won’t explain to me the glory?” I pressed.

“That knowledge is reserved—”

“Yes, I got it,” I interrupted him. “Still, I think your other guests should know the truth. If you don’t wish to tell them, perhaps you’ll allow me to do so.”

“You do not have that knowledge,” Rozhuhu put in tartly.

“Don’t I?” I took a moment to look around at the silent assembly. Circe and the two Patth were still glaring, but Huginn’s expression was now one of carefully controlled interest. More important, I saw that Selene had quietly moved into close sniffing range of him.

“It’s quite simple,” I said, turning back to First and the other Ammei leaders. “In the room across from the Center of Knowledge you’re building a portal.”

I still didn’t know enough Ammei expression and body language to be able to fully gauge their reaction. But the stir behind me showed that the Patth, at least, were surprised by my revelation.

“You say untruth,” Fourth said. “You have not been inside that room.”

“As I said before, I’m aware of all dangers to the life and well-being of Selene of the Kadolians,” I reminded him. “I also know you’ve been working on this portal for many years. Yet it remains unfinished. I conclude that you, First of Three, require the services of the Second of Three”—I waved behind me in the general direction of the two Patth—“and the Third of Three”—I pointed at Selene—“to complete the portal and regain your glory.”

I stopped, waiting as Fourth quietly translated my speech for First. He finished, and for a long moment the room was silent. Then, First stirred and spoke in a firm, very formal voice. “You speak truth, Roarke of the humans,” Fourth translated. “Do you then give your approval to Selene of the Kadolians to accept her role?”

“Not yet,” I said. “Not without further testing of the serum. But.” I raised a finger. “Suppose I could obtain for you an already functional full-range portal? Would you then need the aid of Selene of the Kadolians and Fearth of the Patthaaunutth to complete your version?”

This time, I could feel a stir go around both sides of the room. “I know that’s what you need,” I continued. “Here on Nexus Six, surrounded by twelve Gemini portals, you would hardly need to build another of those. No, your makeshift model has to be a full-range one.” I cocked an eye at First. “So tell me: What do the Ammei need with a new portal? Are you trying to return to the Gold Ones?”

“Do not speak of the Gold Ones!” First snarled.

I took an involuntary step backward, bumping into a pair of Ammei guards who’d silently come up behind me. The First of Three spoke English?

I swallowed a curse. I’d called it, all right, all the way back at the beginning. I’d speculated to Huginn that all the Ammei spoke English, and were only pretending otherwise.

As my father used to say, Getting your enemy to overestimate you is good. Getting him to underestimate you is better. And here in this rustic, out-of-the-way planet filled with homey, backwater, clueless aliens who could barely even communicate with strangers, I’d fallen right into the psychological trap.

“Nice to finally hear your real voice, First of Three,” I said. “So you don’t think much of the Gold Ones, do you?”

“We will not discuss them,” Fourth said.

I shook my head. “Sorry, too late,” I said. “I’ve got it now. You were the Gold Ones’…what? Overseers? Conductors? Managers?”

“We will not—” Fourth began.

“Enough,” First cut him off. “Roarke of the humans is correct. He knows the truth.”

“Most of it, anyway,” I said. Somewhere in the back of my mind I noted the curious and slightly suspicious fact that neither Patth had said a word since the beginning of the confrontation. Were they listening in stunned amazement? Or were they already up to speed, possibly even more than I was, and were just letting me take point? “Did you and the Gold Ones part on bad terms?”

“The portals were ours,” First said stiffly. “They were always ours. We ran them, we managed them, we dedicated ourselves to their function and operation.”

“But you didn’t build them,” I said, watching him closely. “The Gold Ones, the Patth, and the Kadolians did that.”

“They were ours!” First snarled again. “They betrayed us. They all betrayed us.”

“Then what do you wish of us?” Fearth spoke up.

First turned to him. “You will take the serum,” he said, his voice gone quiet and somehow even more chilling. “As the needles join with their threads and link the silver and black together, you, Fearth of the Patthaaunutth, and you, Selene of the Kadolians, will join with me to recreate the glory that was once ours. You will make the final assemblies and pattern the final adjustments. When you have finished, the Ammei, the Patthaaunutth, and the Kadolians shall once again rule together.”

“If we refuse?” Fearth asked.

First gave the same kind of twitch I’d just seen from Rozhuhu. “You will not refuse.”

“No,” Fearth said, his voice respectful but firm. “The Director General has already decided. That era is past. The Patthaaunutth will not return to it.”

“The Patthaaunutth will have no choice.”

“I will not take the serum.”

“You will have no choice.”

“Just a minute,” Circe spoke up, sending me a speculative look. “There’s no need for anyone to take this serum. Roarke says he can get you a full-range portal.”

I winced. The sole purpose of that question had been to get Huginn’s reaction to the idea of the Ammei being loose in the Spiral again. I’d been very careful of my word choices—suppose I could?—to make sure I wasn’t committing myself to anything, with plenty of room to backpedal should anyone call me on it.

But as First turned to face me, I realized with a sinking feeling that such subtleties were probably going to be lost on him.

Sure enough—“You know where a portal is?” he asked.

“I know of several,” I said, stalling while I tried to think. During my last trip to Icarus I’d looked up the Ammei enclaves Huginn had talked about, and I knew the planets where the four of them were located. The most obvious thing to do would be to pop off with one of those names.

But as my father used to say, Obvious doesn’t necessarily mean right. If the Ammei had already fully searched their chosen worlds and come up dry, trying to foist off one of them as the home of my theoretical portal could quickly get me in serious trouble. Better to name some other random planet and hope for the best…

“It’s on Juniper,” Selene said.

I turned my head to stare at her, my thoughts and plans doing a sideways tilt. Juniper was indeed one of the Ammei worlds.

But how had she known that? She hadn’t been back to civilization since we arrived on Nexus Six, and I hadn’t had a chance to hand off any of that information. Worse, if the Ammei had searched that planet…

First muttered something. “Where?” he demanded.

“We know the general area,” I jumped in. The last thing we could afford was being pinned down to latitude and longitude. “I can show you on a map later. But first we need some guarantees.”

First spat something. “The Kadolians are the Third of Three,” he said. “The Ammei are the First of Three. Humans are nothing. We rule, not you.”

“I thought you said you’d all rule together,” I said. “Which is it?”

“We are the First of Three,” First said again.

“All are equal,” Huginn murmured, just loudly enough for me to hear, “but some are more equal than others.”

“Actually, it doesn’t matter,” I said. “Either way, you still need me. You certainly need Selene of the Kadolians.”

“No,” Uvif said. “You need neither of them.”

I felt something tingle on my back. Uvif had taken a step away from Fearth and Circe and moved toward First. What was he up to? “You don’t need Selene of the Kadolians, First of Three,” the Conciliator continued. “Nor do you need Conciliator Fearth of the Patthaaunutth.” He took another step forward.

Two of the guards flanking the throne raised their lightning guns warningly. First of Three held up a hand, and they lowered their muzzles to point at the floor in front of the Patth. “Explain,” First said.

“You need a Patthaaunutth and a Kadolian to finish your portal,” Uvif said, and there was no mistaking the arrogant menace in his tone. “Very well. I welcome the opportunity to work with you and the Ammei. I will take the serum, and will pledge my full support of the Ammei glory.”

“We welcome you, Uvif of the Patthaaunutth,” First said. “But you still must persuade cooperation from Selene of the Kadolians?”

“Such persuasion is unnecessary,” Uvif said. “There is another Kadolian I can bring to you.”

I caught my breath. No. No.

“Where?” First said. “What is his name?”

“He currently resides with Sub-Director Nask,” Uvif said. “His name is Tirano. He comes from the world where the Ammei once gathered the precious silver-silk.” He sent me a mocking smile. “And he was briefly associated with Selene of the Kadolians.”

“When can he be brought here?” First asked.

“The portal will reopen in six hours and twenty minutes,” Uvif said. “At that time, if you so choose, I will travel there with a group of armed Ammei and bring him to you. Do you so choose?”

There was a brief conversation among the Ammei. “I do,” First of Three said at last.

“I strongly suggest you reconsider,” I warned. “The boy is barely into his youthage. A serum designed for Kadolian adults could be fatal to him.”

“Or it could not,” Uvif said calmly. “Still, if it does, we still have Selene.”

“Yes,” First said, his eyes shifting between Uvif and Selene. “Yes, we will.”

My eyes flicked across First and his guards, my brain blazing through a quick set of attack scenarios. If I could get to the closest guard and wrest his weapon from him before the others could get to me, I’d be in position to hold First hostage and bargain for Selene’s life—

And then, for the second time in five minutes, a hand came out of nowhere and locked around my right upper arm. Reflexively, I jerked, but before I could pull away a second hand closed around the back of my collar, pinning me solidly in place. “You can all work out the details together,” Huginn said from behind me. “Meanwhile, Roarke of the humans needs to be put some place where he can be neutralized.”

“Huginn—” I snarled.

“I suggest the Upper Rooms,” Huginn went on. “The beds there have metal frames that are anchored to the floor. I have a set of wrist cuffs, and I can secure him there.”

“No,” I snapped, shooting a glare at Huginn. “I’m bodyguard to Selene of the Kadolians. I must stay at her side.”

“All the more reason he should be locked away,” Huginn said. “Each of them is the guarantee of the other’s behavior. First of Three?”

“You speak wisdom,” First said. “Take him.” He motioned to Rozhuhu and said something in the Ammei language. “Rozhuhu will follow and observe.”

“Fine with me.” Huginn twisted my arm. “Come on.”

He turned me around and we headed back across the room toward the ramp. Four armed Ammei were already waiting for me with an air of expectation. We started to pass Selene and Fearth, and I leaned back against Huginn’s grip, slowing our forward momentum. “I’m sorry, Selene,” I apologized.

“Don’t worry, Gregory,” she said, the tension in her pupils in sharp contrast to her surface calmness. “Others may fear the events of the night. We do not.”

I huffed out a sigh, and gave her a heavy nod.

And as Huginn, Rozhuhu, and the guards herded me toward the ramp to the Upper Rooms, I felt a small easing of my own tension.

I’d seen enough of the Ammei to suspect the First of Three designation meant they fully intended to be in charge of any deals or alliances they might make with their guests. I’d also seen enough of the Patth to know they didn’t like playing second fiddle to anyone.

Now, with Selene’s reading of Huginn’s mood during the conversation confirming that hunch, my gamble looked to be paying off. Huginn was concerned about the direction this whole thing was going, and if he didn’t trust the Ammei there was a fair chance he would stay on my side.

I frowned, running Selene’s words back through my head. She hadn’t said others might be concerned. She’d said others might fear.

Might fear?

Huginn was a highly trained, highly skilled Patth Expediter, not someone who could easily be frightened. Unless Selene had overstated his emotional reaction, he was well past just being worried. Apparently, there was still more going on under the surface that I didn’t know about.

But that was for the future. Right now, Selene was in trouble, and it was my job to get her out of it.

Fortunately, I had a pretty good idea how to do that.

* * *

The beds in the Upper Rooms were just as Huginn had described: thick mattresses on metal frames, with the legs bolted to the floor. Huginn led us to the southern cubicle, the one farthest from the entry ramp, and gave the room a quick look. “This will do,” he said, pointing to the bed and pulling out his cuffs. “Okay, Roarke. Assume the position.”

“You’re on the wrong side, Huginn,” I warned as I lay down on my stomach, dropping my left arm off the mattress to dangle alongside the bed leg. “You better think it through while you still can.”

“I’ve done all the thinking I need to, thanks,” he said, kneeling beside me. For a brief moment his eyes met mine, and I saw in them the dark fear that Selene had already sensed from his scent. The man was indeed worried.

“Your job is to serve the Patth,” I reminded him.

“My job is to serve the winners,” he countered. Leaning over, he snapped the cuffs onto my left wrist and the bed leg. “If you’re smart, you’ll reach that same conclusion.”

“I already have,” I said as he straightened up. “Don’t go very far with that key. I’ll need to use the facilities at some point.”

“Don’t worry,” he said, stepping back and handing the key to Rozhuhu. “Leave this with the guard at the foot of the ramp. You are setting a guard, aren’t you?”

“There will be two guards,” Rozhuhu said, taking the key. He stepped past Huginn and knelt down beside me, double-checking that the cuffs were secure.

“Make it one,” Huginn said. “The Alainn portal isn’t going to be an easy nut to crack. You’ll need every soldier you’ve got; and I’ll need all the time we’ve got to brief them on the terrain and run them through the attack plan. One guard, give him the key, and get everyone else to the library.”

“The First of Three must approve any plans,” Rozhuhu said stiffly.

“Then we’d better go talk to him right now,” Huginn said, striding toward the ramp. “Like I said, you’ll need everyone you’ve got if we’re going to snatch the Kadolian kid.”

They headed to the ramp, Huginn urging speed, Rozhuhu still worrying aloud about protocol. Their voices faded away, and I heard one final indistinct conversation as Rozhuhu presumably assigned my guard and handed off the key.

And then, silence.

I turned toward the nearby window and studied the slice of sky visible from my angle. About an hour to sunset, I estimated, followed by two hours of the beacon’s artificial twilight before it shut down for the night. Three hours out of Uvif’s six hours gone before I could even start my play.

I grimaced as I lay back down. The timing here was going to be tighter than I liked, possibly too tight to be feasible. But I had no choice. I had a way around the guards at Huginn’s portal—maybe—but not if anyone who happened to look out of the Tower was able to see me. Why the hell was the damn beacon still running after all this time?

And then, abruptly, a thought flashed unbidden across my mind. Two hours, seven minutes, and a few seconds, Huginn had said for the beacon’s timing. I didn’t remember the precise numbers, but that was close enough to my vague memories for me to realize I’d stumbled on the truth.

The beacon wasn’t just blazing out in hopes that some randomly galactic passerby would happen by. It was a deliberate signal to Alpha, with the period of the glow precisely matching the full-range portal’s orbital period. Whatever small positional fluctuations Alpha might undergo, the one-revolution timing guaranteed that somewhere in its orbit it would be able to locate Nexus Six and the Tower.

And with that, one more lurking mystery suddenly resolved itself. I’d wondered why the Icari would set up a ring of Geminis here without having a full-range portal also set up alongside them. Only that had indeed been the case once. Alpha had been right here in the city, probably in the center of the ring where Imistio Tower now stood. But then someone had stolen the two halves of a portal directory, and the Icari had responded by moving Alpha into orbit where any thieves trying to come through would find themselves at a dead end.

Except that the thieves had never walked into the trap, because the one carrying RH had already sneaked through and the one with LH had died in battle on Meima and been buried in rubble before he could follow. But the trap remained, the portal left permanently open back to Meima, while the beacon kept its faithful vigil. Meanwhile, the Icari, tired of waiting, had presumably moved on.

And so matters had stood for the past five or ten millennia. The Ammei on Nexus Six, isolated from all but the handful of worlds they could reach through their Geminis, had effectively become a backwater, their former glory fading along with the city itself. They blamed the Icari—the Gold Ones—and brooded.

Until someone thought of a possible way out. If they could build their own full-range portal, they could get back into the game.

I scowled. I could follow the logic that far, but right there was where it fell apart. There was no way they could fit a thirty-meter-diameter launch module in the room I’d seen. It was possible that most of the portal’s size was geared to alleviate the tidal effects arising from the artificial gravity, and the Ammei might have been able to skip that part of the design. But they would still need a receiver module if the thing was going to be of any use to them, and there was no way they could put one of those together without internal gravity.

There was still a piece missing, and I didn’t have any idea what it was. But I would bet commas to commarks that Huginn did. If I pulled this off, he would definitely owe me that piece.

Two hours fifty minutes to go. Arranging myself as comfortably as I could with one arm pinioned to a metal bed leg, I settled in to rest.



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