Word was in that
the Bhodi disciples were not happy with us for stealing their
thunder at the Palace gate. I wondered what they would think when
the news arrived about our behavior at Semchi. That seemed to be
coming together perfectly for us. Unless Soulcatcher was thinking
farther ahead than we could detect.
Murgen had Slink’s party well on the way to the village.
And moving faster than the group the Protector had sent to destroy
the Bhodi Tree. That group outnumbered our brothers but did not
expect any resistance. In a few days it would turn really nasty
down there.
As the weather had here. Storm season had arrived. I had been
delayed coming home by a ferocious thunderstorm that flooded some
streets and sent down hail an inch in diameter. The kangali and
other children went out and tried to gather up the ice, barking in
pain every time a hailstone found unprotected skin. For a short
while the air was almost tolerably cool. But then the storm moved
on and the heat returned worse than it had been before. The stench
of the city welled up. One storm was not enough to sluice it clean,
only to turn everything over. In a few days the insects would be
more miserable than ever before.
I hugged my burden and told myself I would not have to stay in
this cesspool much longer.
“One more to locate and I’ll have everything I need
from the library.” My new acquisition lay open for public
viewing. Of course no one could read it. Not even me. But I was
confident that I now possessed another original of the three
missing Annals. Perhaps the very first, since it was so alien. The
other seemed to be inscribed in the same alphabet, much modified
and somewhat like that used in the discarded volume I had rescued.
If the language was the same, I would be able to figure it out
eventually.
One-Eye cackled. “Yeah. Everything but somebody to
translate that stuff for you. Everything but your new
boyfriend.” He insisted that Master Santaraksita was out to
seduce me. And that Santaraksita would be brokenhearted if he
succeeded and discovered that I was female.
“That’s enough of that, you filthy old
thing.”
“Sacrifice for the cause, Little Girl.” He started
to offer some graphic advice. He had been drinking again. Or was
drinking still.
Sahra arrived. She tossed a large bundle of pages my way.
“Can it, One-Eye. Find Goblin. There’s work to
do.” Of me she demanded, “Why do you put up with
that?”
“He’s harmless. And he’s for sure too darned
old to change. And if he’s nagging me, he’s not getting
into something that’s going to get us all killed.”
“So you’re sacrificing for the cause.”
“Something like that. That was quick.” Goblin had
arrived. “What happened to One-Eye?”
“Taking a leak. What do I have to do now?”
Sahra said, “I can get into the Anger Chamber The rest is
up to you.”
“You do this and you’ll never be able to get back
into the Palace. You know that, don’t you?”
“What’re we talking about?” I asked.
Sahra said, “I think we can kidnap the Radisha. With a
little luck and a lot of help from Goblin and One-Eye.”
“Goblin’s right. You do that, we’d all better
be a hundred miles away by the time the word gets out. I have a
better idea. If we have to give away the fact that we can get
inside the Palace, do it by sabotaging Soulcatcher. Get to one of
her carpets, rig it to come apart under her when she’s two
hundred feet up and moving fast.”
“I like the way you think, Sleepy. Put that on the list,
Sahra. I want to be there. It’d be like the time the Howler
flew into the side of the Tower at Charm. Man, he must’ve
been going at least three times as fast as a horse could run when
he hit that wall. Blauw! Hair, teeth and eyeballs all over
the—”
“He walked away from that, you idiot.” One-Eye was
back. “He’s out there under the plain with our guys
right now.” A unique odor suggested that One-Eye had taken a
moment out to award himself some medicinal refreshment.
“Stop it. Now.” Sahra was cranky tonight. “Our
next step will be to neutralize Chandra Gokhale. We’ve
already decided that. These other things we can worry about down
the road.”
I observed, “We’ll need to freshen up our evacuation
drill in case we need to get out of Taglios in a hurry. The more
active we get, the more likely it becomes that something will go
wrong. If it does, we’ll have Soulcatcher breathing down our
necks.”
Goblin observed, “She isn’t stupid, she’s just
lazy.”
I asked Sahra, “Did she call in her shadows yet?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t hear
anything.”
Goblin grumbled. “What we really need is a formula for
doing without sleep. For about a year. Let me see Minh
Subredil’s Ghanghesha.”
Sahra sent Tobo to fetch the statue. The boy could be much less
unpleasant when he was in a group.
Silence struck as Banh Do Trang rolled in, pushed by one of his
own people. He smiled at a private joke. He enjoyed startling us.
“One of my men tells me that we have a couple of outsiders
caught in the confusion net. They appear to be harmless. An old man
and a mute. Somebody will have to get them out and send them on
their way without making them suspicious.”
That news gave me a little chill but I did not suspect the truth
till poor overworked Tobo and Goblin—the latter going along but
staying out of sight while the boy led the intruders to
safety—returned and Goblin reported, “I think your boyfriend
followed you home, Sleepy.”
“What?”
“There was this terrified old man who tried to impress
Tobo with the fact that he was a librarian.” A lot of
Taglians would have been impressed. The ability to read was almost
a sorcery in itself. “He called his sidekick Adoo. You told
us—”
One-Eye began to howl. “The Little Girl’s a regular
heartbreaker! Damn, I’d give anything to be there when that
oid fool slides his hand into her pants and don’t find what
he’s looking for.’’
I was embarrassed. I do not think I have been embarrassed about
anything since the first time my uncle Rafi slipped his hand under
my sari and did find what he was after. That darned fool
Santaraksita! Why did he have to go complicating things like
this?
“That’s enough of that!” Sahra snapped.
“There’s supposed to be a meeting of the Privy Council
tomorrow. I think we can use it to get to Gokhale. But I’ll
need to take Sawa and Shikhandini.”
“Why?” I asked. I had no desire to go back inside
the Palace ever again.
“That’s great,” One-Eye enthused. “You
don’t show at the library tomorrow, that old goat is gonna
pine and whine and wonder what happened, if it’s all his
fault even though he knows there’s no way you could know he
tried to follow you home. You’ll have your hook set, Little
Girl. All you have to do is pull him in.”
Sahra snapped, “I said—”
“Wait a minute. He may have a point. Suppose I do play
Santaraksita’s game? To the point where I get him to do my
translations for me? We could even add him to our collection. I
don’t think he has much family. Why don’t we take a
closer look, see how long it might be before people wondered why he
was missing.”
“Oh, you’re wicked, Little Girl,” One-Eye
said. “You’re really wicked.”
“You could find out someday, you keep riding
me.”
“About Gokhale?” Sahra asked.
“All right. Why are we taking me and Tobo both?”
“Tobo to put an idea into his head so he gets an itch
he’s going to have to go scratch. You to cover us. Just in
case. I’ll have Tobo carry his flute.” Tobo’s
flute was a small version of the fire-projecting bamboo. “He
can turn it over to you once we’re inside.” Tobo had
carried that flute every time he had accompanied his mother into
the Palace. We try to think ahead. “Also, I want to keep you
fresh in Jaul Barundandi’s mind. I’ll definitely have
to have you along when I snatch the Radisha. Goblin, what can you
do with my Ghanghesha?”
No one else on earth would have dared hand the little wizard a
straight line like that. But Sahra was Sahra. She did not have to
pay the price.
I started to leave. I had other things to do. Tobo asked,
“Is it all right if I show your Annals to Murgen? He wants to
read them.”
“You two starting to get along now?”
“I think so.”
“Good. You can let him see them. Tell him not to be too
critical. If he is, I won’t come out there and dig him
up.”
Word was in that
the Bhodi disciples were not happy with us for stealing their
thunder at the Palace gate. I wondered what they would think when
the news arrived about our behavior at Semchi. That seemed to be
coming together perfectly for us. Unless Soulcatcher was thinking
farther ahead than we could detect.
Murgen had Slink’s party well on the way to the village.
And moving faster than the group the Protector had sent to destroy
the Bhodi Tree. That group outnumbered our brothers but did not
expect any resistance. In a few days it would turn really nasty
down there.
As the weather had here. Storm season had arrived. I had been
delayed coming home by a ferocious thunderstorm that flooded some
streets and sent down hail an inch in diameter. The kangali and
other children went out and tried to gather up the ice, barking in
pain every time a hailstone found unprotected skin. For a short
while the air was almost tolerably cool. But then the storm moved
on and the heat returned worse than it had been before. The stench
of the city welled up. One storm was not enough to sluice it clean,
only to turn everything over. In a few days the insects would be
more miserable than ever before.
I hugged my burden and told myself I would not have to stay in
this cesspool much longer.
“One more to locate and I’ll have everything I need
from the library.” My new acquisition lay open for public
viewing. Of course no one could read it. Not even me. But I was
confident that I now possessed another original of the three
missing Annals. Perhaps the very first, since it was so alien. The
other seemed to be inscribed in the same alphabet, much modified
and somewhat like that used in the discarded volume I had rescued.
If the language was the same, I would be able to figure it out
eventually.
One-Eye cackled. “Yeah. Everything but somebody to
translate that stuff for you. Everything but your new
boyfriend.” He insisted that Master Santaraksita was out to
seduce me. And that Santaraksita would be brokenhearted if he
succeeded and discovered that I was female.
“That’s enough of that, you filthy old
thing.”
“Sacrifice for the cause, Little Girl.” He started
to offer some graphic advice. He had been drinking again. Or was
drinking still.
Sahra arrived. She tossed a large bundle of pages my way.
“Can it, One-Eye. Find Goblin. There’s work to
do.” Of me she demanded, “Why do you put up with
that?”
“He’s harmless. And he’s for sure too darned
old to change. And if he’s nagging me, he’s not getting
into something that’s going to get us all killed.”
“So you’re sacrificing for the cause.”
“Something like that. That was quick.” Goblin had
arrived. “What happened to One-Eye?”
“Taking a leak. What do I have to do now?”
Sahra said, “I can get into the Anger Chamber The rest is
up to you.”
“You do this and you’ll never be able to get back
into the Palace. You know that, don’t you?”
“What’re we talking about?” I asked.
Sahra said, “I think we can kidnap the Radisha. With a
little luck and a lot of help from Goblin and One-Eye.”
“Goblin’s right. You do that, we’d all better
be a hundred miles away by the time the word gets out. I have a
better idea. If we have to give away the fact that we can get
inside the Palace, do it by sabotaging Soulcatcher. Get to one of
her carpets, rig it to come apart under her when she’s two
hundred feet up and moving fast.”
“I like the way you think, Sleepy. Put that on the list,
Sahra. I want to be there. It’d be like the time the Howler
flew into the side of the Tower at Charm. Man, he must’ve
been going at least three times as fast as a horse could run when
he hit that wall. Blauw! Hair, teeth and eyeballs all over
the—”
“He walked away from that, you idiot.” One-Eye was
back. “He’s out there under the plain with our guys
right now.” A unique odor suggested that One-Eye had taken a
moment out to award himself some medicinal refreshment.
“Stop it. Now.” Sahra was cranky tonight. “Our
next step will be to neutralize Chandra Gokhale. We’ve
already decided that. These other things we can worry about down
the road.”
I observed, “We’ll need to freshen up our evacuation
drill in case we need to get out of Taglios in a hurry. The more
active we get, the more likely it becomes that something will go
wrong. If it does, we’ll have Soulcatcher breathing down our
necks.”
Goblin observed, “She isn’t stupid, she’s just
lazy.”
I asked Sahra, “Did she call in her shadows yet?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t hear
anything.”
Goblin grumbled. “What we really need is a formula for
doing without sleep. For about a year. Let me see Minh
Subredil’s Ghanghesha.”
Sahra sent Tobo to fetch the statue. The boy could be much less
unpleasant when he was in a group.
Silence struck as Banh Do Trang rolled in, pushed by one of his
own people. He smiled at a private joke. He enjoyed startling us.
“One of my men tells me that we have a couple of outsiders
caught in the confusion net. They appear to be harmless. An old man
and a mute. Somebody will have to get them out and send them on
their way without making them suspicious.”
That news gave me a little chill but I did not suspect the truth
till poor overworked Tobo and Goblin—the latter going along but
staying out of sight while the boy led the intruders to
safety—returned and Goblin reported, “I think your boyfriend
followed you home, Sleepy.”
“What?”
“There was this terrified old man who tried to impress
Tobo with the fact that he was a librarian.” A lot of
Taglians would have been impressed. The ability to read was almost
a sorcery in itself. “He called his sidekick Adoo. You told
us—”
One-Eye began to howl. “The Little Girl’s a regular
heartbreaker! Damn, I’d give anything to be there when that
oid fool slides his hand into her pants and don’t find what
he’s looking for.’’
I was embarrassed. I do not think I have been embarrassed about
anything since the first time my uncle Rafi slipped his hand under
my sari and did find what he was after. That darned fool
Santaraksita! Why did he have to go complicating things like
this?
“That’s enough of that!” Sahra snapped.
“There’s supposed to be a meeting of the Privy Council
tomorrow. I think we can use it to get to Gokhale. But I’ll
need to take Sawa and Shikhandini.”
“Why?” I asked. I had no desire to go back inside
the Palace ever again.
“That’s great,” One-Eye enthused. “You
don’t show at the library tomorrow, that old goat is gonna
pine and whine and wonder what happened, if it’s all his
fault even though he knows there’s no way you could know he
tried to follow you home. You’ll have your hook set, Little
Girl. All you have to do is pull him in.”
Sahra snapped, “I said—”
“Wait a minute. He may have a point. Suppose I do play
Santaraksita’s game? To the point where I get him to do my
translations for me? We could even add him to our collection. I
don’t think he has much family. Why don’t we take a
closer look, see how long it might be before people wondered why he
was missing.”
“Oh, you’re wicked, Little Girl,” One-Eye
said. “You’re really wicked.”
“You could find out someday, you keep riding
me.”
“About Gokhale?” Sahra asked.
“All right. Why are we taking me and Tobo both?”
“Tobo to put an idea into his head so he gets an itch
he’s going to have to go scratch. You to cover us. Just in
case. I’ll have Tobo carry his flute.” Tobo’s
flute was a small version of the fire-projecting bamboo. “He
can turn it over to you once we’re inside.” Tobo had
carried that flute every time he had accompanied his mother into
the Palace. We try to think ahead. “Also, I want to keep you
fresh in Jaul Barundandi’s mind. I’ll definitely have
to have you along when I snatch the Radisha. Goblin, what can you
do with my Ghanghesha?”
No one else on earth would have dared hand the little wizard a
straight line like that. But Sahra was Sahra. She did not have to
pay the price.
I started to leave. I had other things to do. Tobo asked,
“Is it all right if I show your Annals to Murgen? He wants to
read them.”
“You two starting to get along now?”
“I think so.”
“Good. You can let him see them. Tell him not to be too
critical. If he is, I won’t come out there and dig him
up.”