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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

He didn’t love it. But he didn’t hate it, either. And as my father used to say, It’s a good sign when your plan pulls a solid neutral from your allies. That way you know they’ll be alert and thinking the whole way.

The stars were starting to disappear into dawn over the eastern mountains by the time we were in place. “You’re sure they’ll come here?” Ixil asked a little doubtfully as I gave my chosen venue one last check.

“They will if they listen to Huginn,” I said. “He talked about these big houses earlier, and he knows I’ll remember that. No, he’ll point the Ammei here as a likely spot for me to have gone to ground, all right.” I looked down at the matte, color-shifting camo suit that the drysuit had turned into once we were out of the water. “I have to say these things are amazing. I’d expected a lot more trouble getting ashore and sneaking in here.”

“Only the best for General Kinneman,” Ixil said with a hint of irony.

“Of course.” I gestured to the door. “Better get to cover. We’ll find out soon enough if this is going to work.”

“Right,” Ixil said. “Good luck.”

A minute later, as I peered through one of the cracks in the wall, I saw him and Pix slip beneath the pile of rubble he’d chosen for his observation spot. I looked behind me at the similar rubble where Pax was hidden, then walked over a chunk of wall beside the house’s broken-down entrance and a convenient ceramic slab. I ran my finger down the wall, tracing out the words talk to me, then crossed to what was left of the stairs and eased my way to the upper floor. I lay down in my chosen spot, where I could watch my wall through a crack in the floor. I pulled some heavy, drywall-like slabs on top of me for concealment, and settled in to wait.

Like most stakeouts I’d been on, this one seemed to linger far beyond the seconds and minutes my watch was ticking off. I thought a lot about Ixil and Pax, wondering if they were well enough hidden against whatever search parties were prowling around. I thought about Kinneman and his SOLA assault team, wondering if the general would wait for me to create my promised diversion or if he would get impatient and launch his attack without it. I wondered if whatever resistance the Ammei mounted against that attack would collapse before the best firepower EarthGuard had to offer, or if their lightning guns would prove the superior weapons.

Mostly, I thought about Selene.

So far, the Ammei had treated her like royalty. But now I’d disappeared, presumably abandoning her and the Ammei, and Circe and Sub-Director Fearth were on site telling whatever story they wanted about the two of us.

In the wake of all that, had Selene’s status changed? Probably, and almost certainly not for the better. But until I knew the details, trying to counter Fearth’s gambit would be flailing in the dark. I needed intel, I needed it badly, and I needed it now.

Which was the whole idea behind this scheme. The simplest way for the Ammei to find me was to use Selene’s tracking abilities to turn what would otherwise be a massive, multi-day, city-wide search into something quicker and more focused. If she could talk Second of Three into putting her to work, and if she caught the invisible message I’d left for her on the ceramic slab downstairs, she should be able to pass on the information I needed without the Ammei knowing she was doing it.

If it turned out that such intel was too little or too late, I had a backup plan in the form of the replacement Sigurd plasmic I’d taken from the Alpha weapons rack. Dueling it out with a bunch of armed aliens wasn’t how I’d planned my day to go, but if it was that or leave Selene alone and in danger I was ready to take the risk.

I’d been lying there an hour, thinking dark thoughts, working up contingency plans, and listening to the wind whistling softly through the gaps in my hideout’s walls and ceiling, when they finally arrived.

To my relief, Selene was indeed leading the way, squeezing through the warped doorway. Close behind her were Third of Three and Rozhuhu, the former presumably here as the authority figure in charge of the hunt, the latter here as translator. Behind them came four of the ubiquitous armed Ammei guards, plus I could hear more of them scuffling through the debris outside. Prowling around everyone were half a dozen tenshes, weaving their way between the moving feet with impressive dexterity. They fanned out across the room, poking their little noses into the corners and various small piles of debris. I could only hope they didn’t spot Pax.

I’d half expected Circe to talk her way into the hunt, either to keep an eye on Selene or in hopes of exacting some revenge on me for locking Uvif and his guards in the closet last night. But instead of our lady Expediter, the final member of the search team—

“If you ask me, this whole thing is a waste of time,” Huginn growled, stopping by the doorway as Selene sniffed the air.

I felt a sudden hollow feeling in my stomach. Circe didn’t know me beyond what I’d done to Uvif and whatever she’d read in various reports. She hadn’t seen me in action and didn’t know the sort of convoluted schemes and tactical sleight of hand I’d learned as a bounty hunter and which I liked to use against my adversaries.

But Huginn knew. Not only had he seen my stunts firsthand, but he’d been dragged into reluctant partnership in one or two of them. He would suspect I was running a game here, and he’d be watching for it. The minute Selene got my message and started casually talking about things everyone else in the room already knew, he would realize I was within eavesdropping range. At that point, all it would take would be a single word to Third to call fire and brimstone down on me.

And there wasn’t a single thing I could do about it. Not without calling that same destruction down on my own head.

“We have not asked your advice,” Rozhuhu shot back with an air of impatience. “Furthermore, you have already stated that point six times. As I also have stated that we are here at the command of the First of Three, and will not falter until our task has been completed. Selene of the Kadolians, is he here or is he not?”

“He was here,” Selene said, walking a slow circle around the room. She reached the slab where I’d written my invisible note, passed it without pausing, and continued on. “But as I told you from the start, finding a midpoint of Gregory’s path still gives us two directions to follow with no indication as to which is the more recent.”

“And even if you do find him, then what?” Huginn persisted. His gaze drifted casually around the room, lingered for a fraction of a second too long on the crack I was looking through, then moved on. I got a grip on the butt of my plasmic, knowing full well I couldn’t do anything with it, and waited for the inevitable. “I can tell you right now what his advice will be,” he continued, turning back to Rozhuhu.

Rozhuhu made an odd sound in his throat. “You speak of counsel from a mere bodyguard?” he asked contemptuously. “Such surely cannot be taken seriously.”

“Maybe that’s not the way of the Ammei,” Huginn said. “But the Kadolian concept of bodyguard stretches beyond the physical into the emotional and intellectual.”

“That is not the way of the Kadolians.”

“Maybe it wasn’t when you knew them,” Huginn said. “But it’s been thousands of years since then, and things have changed. And I don’t think you’ll be pleased with the advice Roarke of the humans will offer her.”

I frowned, part of my mind listening to the discussion, most of it focused on Huginn and his baffling lack of action. Surely he’d spotted me during his survey of the room, or if he hadn’t he’d at least figured out where I had to be. As I’d told Circe, he undoubtedly had a spot for me in his plans before I’d inconveniently run out on him, and this was his chance to corral me and get me back into line. So why wasn’t he jabbing a finger at the ceiling and whooping in triumph? More than that, why did it sound like he was deliberately funneling me the information I’d been hoping for from Selene?

Were the two of them working together? Or was this a subtle scheme Huginn was playing back at me?

“Because I’ve spoken at length with Roarke on many topics,” Huginn continued. “I know with certainty that he’ll recommend she not take the needle.”

“If Roarke feels such strength of purpose against it, why did he himself lead us to the Imistio Book?” Rozhuhu countered.

I frowned. The Imistio Book? As in, the Imistio Tower?

“Maybe he was looking for something else and didn’t know what he’d found,” Huginn said. “You said the book had been returned to its hiding place. Why would he have put it back if he wanted you to have it?”

I felt my stomach curl into a hard knot. So this Imistio Book was the one I’d found in the Grove of Reflection. And, despite my best attempts to leave no clues of my presence behind, I’d apparently left enough of them for the Ammei to find the damn thing.

So much for the Gold One’s efforts to keep it away from them.

“Perhaps he sees the Imistio Book as a threat to his status,” Rozhuhu said.

“Right,” Huginn said sarcastically. “Because if Selene of the Kadolians becomes the true Third of Three, she won’t need his counsel anymore. Is that what you think?”

“Yes,” Rozhuhu said. “As the Third of Three has already said.”

I frowned a little harder. I’d hoped Selene would be able to dribble me some information. Instead, for whatever reason, Huginn seemed to have taken over that job.

And instead of dribbles, he was feeding it to me via firehose.

If Selene of the Kadolians becomes the true Third of Three. What did that even mean? Was the Third of Three we’d been introduced to just a regent or placeholder in the hierarchy? Was that a position that was supposed to be held by a Kadolian? That might explain why they’d been treating her so well up to now.

So how and where did this Imistio Book fit in? “Maybe Roarke’s concerns are more subtle,” Huginn said. “This is a modern Kadolian female we’re talking about, and from what you and the legends say the enhancement serum in the Imistio Book was created eight to ten millennia ago. What if there’s been genetic drift in the Kadolians over that time? What if there are metabolic changes that make her an entirely different person? What might the needle do to her?”

And then, with a horrific rush, I got it. We were talking about some drug or chemical that dated back to the height of Icari power and influence in the Spiral. Imistio—Selene had already said the Ammei word paralleled the Kadolian word for spear or needle.

So those hadn’t been just random lines of Icari poetry I’d seen on those thin metal pages. They were parts of a chemical formula, probably accompanied with step-by-step instructions on how to mix up a batch of the stuff. An enhancement serum, whatever the hell that was, unless Huginn was just being flowery.

And First of Three wanted to inject an untested and unproven drug into Selene?

Not a chance. Even ignoring Huginn’s warning about genetic drift, Selene wasn’t going to try some millennia-old gamble if I had anything to say about it.

Unfortunately, there was a very real chance that I wouldn’t.

If Selene of the Kadolians becomes the true Third of Three. So if Selene took this serum she would become one of three people in charge of Nexus Six? Including the portals and the Ammei soldiers guarding them?

If so, and whatever I thought of such an insane experiment, I knew it was an opportunity General Kinneman would grab with both hands if he ever got wind of it. Put Selene and the serum in front of him, and he’d be right there with First of Three.

“And if the serum doesn’t function as expected?” Huginn demanded. “Kadolians don’t drop in on Nexus Six every other week. If you damage her, you risk never having another chance. You should at least do some testing on the serum. Starting by making sure the formula is correct.”

“The book once resided in the Center of Knowledge,” Rozhuhu said stiffly. “It was removed and hidden by one of the Gold Ones. It is accurate.”

My throat tightened. Accurate…except for the two pages currently riding around in my artificial arm. Had the Ammei even noticed they were missing?

“Again, how do you know?” Huginn persisted. “There are thousands of books in there. Who’s to say you don’t have an early formula that was subsequently improved on?”

Third rumbled something. “The Third of Three expresses amazement, Huginn of the humans,” Rozhuhu translated. “You claim to be servant to Selene of the Kadolians, yet you do not wish her to ascend to this highest of honors?”

“I would never begrudge her such,” Huginn said. “Just as I also don’t begrudge the ascension of Conciliator Fearth to the position of Second of Three. I simply wish to make certain that neither will find the darker branch of their stories.”

So now Fearth was also being promoted? And to Second of Three? Did that mean the job of First of Three was also up for grabs?

I grimaced. No, of course not. What Huginn was laying out was how it must have been at the beginning: an Ammei, a Patth, and a Kadolian, running things from their neat little triumvirate. There was a sudden soft scratching sound from the stairway. Carefully, I turned my head to look.

To find that while I’d been focused on Huginn’s exposition one of the tenshes had wandered up from below and was sniffing at a pile of sheetrock slabs.

I froze, my hand once again closing around my plasmic. Four meters in this direction, and the creature would be right on top of me. If that happened, I was going to have to find a quiet way to silence it and hope its owner didn’t miss it.

To my relief, the tensh showed no indication of straying from the stairway’s general vicinity. He looked around a bit longer, started to move in my direction, then suddenly turned and went back down the stairs. Breathing a silent sigh of relief, I returned my attention to the group below.

And felt my eyes narrow as something odd caught my eye. Most of the people down there—Huginn, Selene, Third, Rozhuhu, three of the guards—were looking at each other, their eyes level as they talked among themselves. The fourth guard’s eyes, in contrast, were pointed at the top of the stairway.

And as I watched, his gaze steadily lowered until it was pointed at the floor. Not just at the floor, but at the tensh that had now reached ground level. The animal came into sight through my observation crack and scurried toward the guard, passed him without slowing, and headed toward something I couldn’t see on the far side of the room. I looked back at the guard, to find him still focused on the animal.

Watching it very intently. Almost, the odd image flashed to mind, like an anxious parent watching his five-year-old child to make sure he didn’t get lost on the way to school.

I’d wondered earlier if the tenshes were pets, symbionts, parasites, or Kalixiri-style outriders. Selene had suggested there was some connection between the tensh and Ammei scents. But we’d never come up with a solid answer to that puzzle.

Like an anxious parent…

No. Ridiculous. There were plenty of animal species in the Spiral where the young weren’t just smaller versions of the adults, of course, tadpoles and frogs being the most obvious example. I didn’t know of any sapients that followed that pattern, but there was nothing that said they couldn’t.

And there was the similar armadillo-like armor plating both the Ammei and the tenshes had for skin.

Third growled something, his words cutting off my runaway train of speculation. “The Third of Three reminds us we are wasting time,” Rozhuhu translated. “Where do we go next, Selene of the Kadolians?”

“We follow the trail,” Selene said. “I’m not certain, but I think it’s getting stronger.”

Third spoke again. “You have until sundown to find him,” Rozhuhu said. “After that, we return to Imistio Tower.”

“And the serum?” Huginn asked.

“She will take it as planned,” Rozhuhu said. “She and Fearth of the Patthaaunutth both. Unless you counsel Fearth of the Patthaaunutth to refuse.”

“No, I can handle Conciliator Fearth,” Huginn assured him. “He’ll listen to my counsel, and I wholeheartedly support and embrace the glory of the Ammei. But if Selene of the Kadolians refuses, it will come to nothing. We must yet convince Roarke of the humans.”

I peered down at Huginn, trying to figure out what he was trying to tell me. What the hell did the glory of the Ammei have to do with this?

“Roarke of the humans cannot counsel from concealment,” Rozhuhu said. “If he wishes to speak, he may come to Imistio Tower and state his case.”

“And if he counsels against the serum?” Huginn repeated.

“She will still receive it. The Imistio Book has been found, and a Kadolian and a Patthaaunutth have arrived on Nexus Six. The goal of the ages is within sight. It must now be brought into reach.” He looked sharply at Huginn. “And Roarke of the humans will not stop us.”

“I can convince him,” Huginn said firmly. “When he is found, you must let me try. But with or without Roarke’s counsel, Selene of the Kadolians chooses her own way. Even if the serum works she may not cooperate in achieving your goal.”

“Do you speak, Selene of the Kadolians?” Rozhuhu asked.

“I shall await the counsel of Roarke of the humans,” Selene said. “He is not here. Do you wish to proceed along his trail?”

“We do,” Rozhuhu said, a hint of suspicion in his tone. “We await your guidance.”

Selene bowed her head and turned to the doorway. “Then come.”

One by one they followed her back outside. I thought about moving to one of the damaged sections of wall where I could watch to make sure they were leaving, decided there was an even chance I would either make enough noise to bring them back or else collapse the rest of the structure on top of me, and stayed put.

Anyway, Ixil was out there watching. As soon as it was clear, he’d send Pix to fetch Pax and me.

Between the escape from Uvif, the escape from the Ammei, the sort-of escape from Kinneman, and now the eavesdrop trap, I hadn’t had a lot of sleep in the past twenty-four hours. I’d fallen into a light doze when I was startled awake by Pix’s nose poking insistently at my cheek. I gave him a quick stroke along his back and headed back down the rickety stairs.

Ixil was sitting on a piece of masonry near the door, watching Pax squeeze in through a crack and join us. “We clear?” I murmured.

Ixil lifted a warning finger as Pax climbed up his clothing and settled onto his shoulder. His eyes unfocused a moment as the outrider dumped the memories of this latest recon—“They’re gone,” he confirmed as Pix climbed up to the other shoulder. “Let’s make sure it stays that way.”

He paused again, and I watched as both outriders hopped back down and disappeared through opposite sides of the building. “Interesting conversation,” Ixil said, waving me to another broken slab. “I wonder what this goal is the Third of Three was referring to.”

“Personally, I’m more interested in this serum they’re talking about,” I said grimly. “And what it might do to Selene if it isn’t the right one. Or if it is.

“Definitely a concern,” Ixil agreed. “I assume, given how eager Huginn seemed to pass this information on to you, that he has similar fears for Conciliator Fearth.”

“I noticed that, too,” I said. “As my father used to say, Enlightened self-interest is a valuable ally.”

“Indeed,” Ixil said. “I found Huginn’s reference to the darker branch of their stories particularly interesting, bringing to mind the myths of Orammescka and Arammika. You know that the first story ends with Orammescka falling to his death after obtaining fire for the Patth, and Arammika’s legend ends with her still alive after delivering the webs of the silver and black spiders. But there are alternate versions of both myths where Orammescka lives and Arammika dies.”

“I didn’t know that,” I said, my mind suddenly tumbling off in an entirely different direction. Had I just spotted something important, or was it just an artifact of my churning thoughts and fears? “So the stories say only one of them lives?”

“Or both live, or both die,” Ixil said, peering closely at me. “That’s the problem with myths and alternate endings. You have something?”

“Maybe,” I said. “Just to be clear, are you saying this serum is tied in with these legends?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Still, the current situation where a serum is connected to a great purpose and seems to have dual outcomes of life or death seems uncomfortably parallel to the myths. Any thought as to what the glory of the Ammei is, or what this goal might be?”

“Not a clue,” I said. “But my guess is that, whatever Huginn says, he’s opposed to it.”

“He told Rozhuhu that he would convince Fearth.”

“He also implied that a stubborn Selene would stalemate the whole thing,” I reminded him. “I think he’s trying to stay on Rozhuhu’s good side, pretending to cooperate, hoping that Selene and I can keep Fearth from having to take this serum.”

“Perhaps,” Ixil said, not sounding convinced. “A pity he didn’t give us more information about it.”

“I’m guessing he doesn’t know anything more,” I said. “You saw how good he is at this game. I think he gave us everything he had.”

“Indeed.” Ixil cocked his head slightly. “Tell me about this sudden thought you had a moment ago.”

“The sort of weird one I usually get,” I said. “Did you notice that the name Orammescka has an amme in the middle and Arammika has an ammei?

Ixil muttered something I couldn’t catch. “I missed that completely. And under the circumstances, I hardly think it’s coincidence.”

“Me, neither,” I said slowly, trying to think this through. “Let’s assume I’m right, that the Ammei are connected to these legends, and try rewriting them. It was the Ammei who gave the Patth fire, silver-silk, and whatever the black mesh is that came from the black spider. An electronic matrix, maybe. If the Patth cooperate with their benefactors they have life; if they don’t, they get death.”

“Has there been any conflict between the Ammei and Conciliator Fearth?” Ixil asked.

“No idea,” I said. “I was taken off the game board before they met. Selene might have picked up something—she knows Patth scents well enough to spot any major emotional upheavals—but we won’t be able to ask her until we can get her away from them.”

“Yes,” Ixil said thoughtfully. “In the meantime, let me try a variant of your myth. What if fire was given to the Patth and silver-silk to the Kadolians?”

I ran that one a couple of turns around my brain. “Could be,” I said. “Or maybe it’s more subtle than just an either-or. When we brought Alpha down, Selene was able to track its status by smell. How it was…I know it sounds crazy, but how it was feeling. She could track its functional state, the changes it went through when it was coming through the atmosphere and then into the river, and when it was partially back up. I know that sounds weird.”

“No weirder than many other things we’ve seen Selene do,” Ixil said. “And she knew when it was back to full function?”

“Actually, we weren’t in the portal when that happened,” I said. “One other thing. When we first reached the Alainn portal, she described it as being dead.”

“Interesting,” Ixil murmured. “I wonder…You said the silver-silk from Alainn is organic, correct?”

“I think all silver-silk is,” I said, frowning as I tried to figure out where he was going with that question. “The original stuff from Jondervais came from insects—”

And in a blinding flash of lightning, I got it. “It’s organic,” I breathed. “Way more complex chemically than ordinary metal. When silver-silk heats up, or cools down, or changes in any way, that change is reflected in its scent.”

“A scent that has a much wider operational range than anything inorganic,” Ixil said. “Most metals and circuit materials don’t carry much odor, so any such changes would be hard to detect.”

“But not impossible,” I said. The pieces were falling together, and I wasn’t sure I liked the picture they were forming. “She does that all the time on the Ruth. Sniffs out problems in the making, usually before the monitor sensors even notice.”

“And on the Ruth she’s just picking up temperature and stress changes,” Ixil pointed out. “Imagine how much more detailed a picture she can get from something made of organics.”

“Yes,” I said. “Okay. So the Patth were the engineers who got to play with all this cool stuff. The portals, the Talariac Drive, and who knows what else. So what does that make the Kadolians? Manufacturing consultants? Quality control? Real-time analysts?”

“All those, and probably more,” Ixil said. “The Patth build the portals and the Kadolians monitor their work and make sure everything is functioning properly. Where do the Ammei fit in?”

“There’s only one place left for them,” I said grimly. “The Ammei have to be the Icari.”

“I thought the Gold Ones were the Icari.”

“Are they?” I countered. “Isn’t it convenient that the Ammei can point any unwanted attention at a vague species that no one has ever seen and no one has ever heard of? And yes, I took a few minutes to do a search while you and Kinneman were finding the camo drysuit for me. There aren’t any known sapient species that could even remotely be called gold-colored.”

“What about you humans? Some of you are shades of brown.”

“Brown is a long way from gold,” I said. “Besides, our ancient history is way too well nailed down to allow for a few thousand years of building and running an interstellar transport system.”

“Perhaps the name refers to the Gold Ones’ value or wealth,” Ixil suggested.

“Their value or wealth when?” I asked. “Now? Ten thousand years ago? And who says gold was even valuable back then? But really, all you need to do is look at the numbers. Huginn said that when Fearth and Selene got the serum they’d take over as Second of Three and Third of Three. That just leaves First of Three.”

“Who you’ve never seen,” Ixil pointed out. “Could he be a different species? One of the Gold Ones, perhaps?”

I shook my head. “Selene would have mentioned smelling another species.”

“Unless he was hidden away somewhere.”

“You mean in a hermetic walk-in storage place like the one where they stashed Huginn and his Iykams?”

“Or on another planet entirely,” Ixil said, waving his hand in the direction of the portal ring. “It wouldn’t be a long journey.”

I winced. I hadn’t thought about that. “Point taken. I still think the Ammei are the Icari, though.”

“You make a reasonable case,” Ixil said. “But I can’t help thinking we’re missing something.”

“Probably,” I said. “But as my father used to say, The minute you think you have all the pieces to the puzzle, start looking for the ones that were dropped on the floor.

“Interesting turn of phrase,” Ixil said. “What floor do you intend to search?”

“The only one we’ve got,” I said. Unfastening my holster from my belt, I handed it and my plasmic to Ixil and started to strip off my camo suit.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“To make Kinneman happy,” I said. “It’s time to get myself captured.”



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