Hellspark. Part 29

The sprookjes surrounding him, as excited as they might be, did not serve; nor did the handful of surveyors-all of whom were too intent on observing the sprookjes' behavior to notice Dyxte's.

Tocohl drew her party to his side. "Nicely done," she said and a second sprookje, Dyxte's, echoed her approving words.

"Thank you," said Dyxte, echoed himself. Then he crooked a finger to indicate his sprookje. "It's still parroting us both," the two of them went on. "I'm not sure-"

But as he spoke, Tocohl raised her hands to his sprookje's beak and larynx, as she'd done earlier to quiet Sunchild. Dyxte's sprookje stopped speaking, leaving Dyxte to finish his sentence alone. "-You accomplished much-"

Dyxte stopped to stare, first at Tocohl, then at his sprookje, in astonishment. "It stopped echoing me," he said. "You did it!"

"I don't think so." Tocohl eyed Sunchild suspiciously. "I think Sunchild translated for me." (Maggy, let me see what Sunchild did while I signed at Dyxte's sprookje.)The requested image flashed on Tocohl's spectacles. Watching carefully, she caught the movement she had seen only peripherally as she had gestured to Dyxte's sprookje. (Again, Maggy, more slowly.) This time she saw clearly the ripple of feathers along Sunchild's thigh, the minute shift of stance.

"This," said Tocohl aloud, "is not going to be easy. But I'll be burned if I'll settle for a pidgin.

Obviously, I need feathers. No-stripes! Maggy, stripe my 2nd skin-make it brown, dark brown, and gold."

The stripes began at the tops of her "boots" and raced upward to vanish into the folds of her collar.

Sunchild watched their progress with startled interest. Sure of the sprookje's attention, Tocohl said, (Maggy, I want you to imitate that feather ripple by distorting the stripes. Now!); and Maggy obliged.

Sunchild's eyes widened still farther. It rippled feathers identically, then thumbed a vigorous yes.

"Got it," said Tocohl triumphantly, and she and the sprookje thumbed happy yeses at each other.

"Now wait here," she went on, "I've got to see if it works on the rest of your people as well." She signed follow and flicked no.

Leaving all but Maggy behind, Tocohl crossed the courtyard and plunged into the excited crowd at the steps of Edge-of-Dark's cabin to find Kejesli. Her presence sparked a babble of greeting and echoed greeting.

"Veschke's sparks, Tocohl," Kejesli-and his sprookje-shouted to make themselves heard, "your rib!" With three preemptory shoves he gave her breathing s.p.a.ce in the crowd. "Why are you out of bed... ?" he said, and his sprookje echoed his concern.

She grinned and shouted back, "Because I've got a word to say to your sprookje!"

(Again, Maggy. Ripple for quiet,) Tocohl said, and the stripes on her 2nd skin flashed into motion.

"You can talk to them? You can really talk to them?" Kejesli said, and this time he spoke without accompaniment. "They told me you'd gotten one to echo you but-" He broke off suddenly, shutting his mouth with almost as audible a snap as the sprookje's. "It stopped echoing me! What did you do?" he said, staring at the silent creature beside him as if it were about to bite.

"I told it to shut up," said Tocohl. "That's the only phrase I know in sprookje so far-but that's not a bad start for learning a language without words."

Chapter Fifteen.

BY THE TIME the sprookjes had begun once again to look at darkening skies and to flash their tongues in warning, Tocohl had established some fifty gestures, all broad, in pidgin, and with Maggy's help she could recognize and imitate five-tentatively-in the more subtle and infinitely more difficult "language" of the sprookjes themselves. Quite enough for one day, she decided, as she watched them vanish into the flashwood at the edge of camp.

(You should be resting now. I've got sensors spiking all over the place.) Tocohl stared thoughtfully down at the arachne. (I see you've been spending a lot of your time with Buntec.) The arachne tilted upward, much as if startled. (Yeah. How did you know? Did I do wrong?) (No, no, not wrong. And I can tell because you're picking up her phrasing. Just take care to use it appropriately. Bear in mind that Buntec is considered coa.r.s.e and vulgar by about half the surveyors, even though she's very refined by her own standards.) (Okay,) said Maggy, then through the arachne's vocoder, she said, "Om im, Tocohl's going to rest now."

"Good idea." He patted his shoulder, offering it for her support. "Ish shan?" She accepted his aid and found Buntec supporting her from the other side, gently urging her toward the infirmary as the first spatters of rain began to strike. Maggy trotted the arachne along beside them.

"One moment."

It was the first time Tocohl had heard true command in Kejesli's voice. Buntec jerked to a halt, her surprise confirming . Om im raised a gilded brow and turned as well.Hands on hips, Kejesli waited until he had the full attention of his troop of surveyors. "We've wasted enough time on this world already. I want your revised reports tonight: the message capsule goes tomorrow morning..." A cheer rippled through the crowd, forcing him to pause momentarily. When it subsided, Kejesli's manner softened. Smiling at Tocohl, he finished, "At that time, Flashfever pa.s.ses from our jurisdiction to that of the h.e.l.lsparks who, I'm sure, are more than ably represented already."

His hand sought the pin of remembrance at his lapel. In Sheveschkem, he added, "Veschke guide you, Tocohl Susumo."

Tocohl responded in the same language, "Veschke got me here... and she's not one to strand a trader."

As she touched her pin of high-change, Maggy said, (Yeah, but how is she on people who impersonate byworld judges?) (I don't even want to think about it,) Tocohl said as she let Om im and Buntec lead her back to the infirmary.

(I do,) said Maggy, and her I had become a thing of wonder.

Too exhausted to do more than note the fact, Tocohl said only, (Then do it quietly,) and, to her relief, Maggy obliged. Blessing the respite, Tocohl settled into her cot and slept. For the next three hours not even the thunder was able to wake her.

When she did awake, it was not to an ear-splitting crash of thunder, but rather to the smallest of protests-an outraged, bewildered, "Hey!" in a voice that was unmistakably Alfvaen's and it brought Tocohl fully awake by the time Alfvaen had finished her complaint, "I'm all strapped down!"

Tocohl sat upright. Beside her, Om im chuckled and called out, "We thought we'd give our h.e.l.lspark a chance to recuperate before you broke her other ribs, Alfvaen."

"Don't confuse her," said layli-layli calulan firmly. Just as firmly, she pushed swift-Kalat aside-he was attempting to hug Alfvaen where she lay-to loosen the straps and free her. She sat up into swift-Kalat's embrace, and for a moment, there was appreciative silence on all sides. Then the two shyly released each other.

Alfvaen stretched and scratched and said, with a sigh, "That's better." As she addressed the remark to swift-Kalat, Tocohl suspected she referred to the embrace as well.

A sound very like a crow issued from the arachne's vocoder. "The books were right! I was right!"

The arachne sprang for the edge of the cot, clung precariously by three of its forward appendages until swift-Kalat boosted it onto the bed beside Alfvaen, where it tilted to peer at her. "But you were supposed to win the duel, weren't you? How are you?" she demanded, rocking the arachne from side to side.

Alfvaen, still bemused, said, "You're all right, Maggy. I'm so glad. Tocohl was worried!"

"You," Maggy repeated, doubling the frequency of her rocking, "how are you?"

Alfvaen looked at the arachne and then all about her in wonder. "I feel... fine?" Puzzling over her own sensations, she frowned down at her hands, as if checking their condition might tell her the state of the rest of her body. "The last thing I remember, we were following a sprookje and I was... I was sobering-without my medication. I feel... sober, Maggy, for the first time in years!"

She turned a wide-eyed stare on layli-layli who said, "Yes, although I'd prefer to make a few confirming tests."

"Oh, of course! The others who have Cana's disease! Can they be helped too, layli-layli?"

"I believe so. If the sprookjes are willing." She glanced across the room at Tocohl. "I agree with Tocohl's a.s.sessment: your serendipity is beyond question." Then she busied herself with her instruments, checking monitors, and interrupting only to draw another blood sample from the Siveyn while Om im told Alfvaen what had happened since her last clear memory, that of the vanishing daisy-clipper.

Waiting until layli-layli calulan had finished her tests, Tocohl rose and crossed the room to perch on the edge of Alfvaen's cot. Hand, palm up in the crook of her elbow, she greeted Alfvaen formally.

"From what Om im tells me," Alfvaen said, "I slept through all the excitement."

Om im laughed, startling Alfvaen. Tocohl, smiling, said, "Hardly that. In fact, you were a major portion of it yourself.""What do you mean?"

With a gesture, Tocohl deferred to Om im: "His version is the most colorful one that retains some accuracy." Buntec's version had grown to epic proportion in the retelling, to the point that it embarra.s.sed Tocohl.

Om im touched the hilt of his knife and recounted the duel between the two. He had only begun when a look of horror came into the Siveyn's green eyes. Surprisingly, her first action was to jerk her head at the arachne. "Oh, Maggy. That's what you meant! I thought-I thought I dreamed it!"

Splaying her fingers at her throat, she turned again to Tocohl. "I dreamed so many terrible things! I thought that was only one more! Your pardon, Tocohl!"

"You did dream it," Tocohl said easily. "And like a dream, it's forgotten on waking. Just don't do it again-I only lived through it by trickery."

"But why? Why would I challenge you, and to death? That doesn't make sense. What grievance did I claim?" She laid her hand on wrist. "Please," she urged, "tell me. I only recall something nightmarish, something about you that terrified me..."

"It's not important," Tocohl began. In retrospect, it would only serve to embarra.s.s Alfvaen further: her "grievance" had been downright silly.

But layli-layli calulan said, "Tell her, tocohli. It is part of the healing." So Tocohl described the incident, repeating Alfvaen's challenge and her own responses verbatim.

Alfvaen gasped, but Tocohl said, "Now I've forgotten it."

"I haven't," said Maggy, "I remember the words but I don't understand them."

Alfvaen looked at the arachne unhappily. "I accused her of glamour, of influencing someone's emotions"-her eyes glanced at swift-Kalat, slipped away in embarra.s.sment-"by unnatural means: psi powers, love philtres. It's a terrible crime on my world. Fortunately it doesn't happen very often."

"But it does," Maggy said. "In the books, it does."

"But those are only fiction.-And Tocohl replied that she was as natural as I, and took a terrible chance turning her back on me! You know how dangerous that was, don't you, Tocohl?"

"Believe me, I know it. I can still feel the hair on the back of my neck rising. But I could feel your position on my 2nd skin, so I knew when you rushed me. That and the zap-me probably saved my life."

"I didn't get to watch," said Maggy, something almost petulant in her voice. "When you duel again, may I watch?"

Tocohl smiled again and took Alfvaen's hand in her own. "As I said, just don't do it again. If Maggy were there, you wouldn't stand a chance against us."

"I could stay out of it," suggested Maggy hopefully. "After all, two against one isn't polite. And Alfvaen was supposed to win."

Swift-Kalat said, "I don't understand what this is about."

"My low taste in reading matter," Alfvaen said. "Maggy expects us to do certain things because of the books she and I read."

Patiently, Tocohl said, "Maggy, fiction and reality often reinforce one another, but fiction can't be counted on to give you a pattern for reality. Alfvaen's nightmares took the form they did because of what she reads. Yes, she's my friend, and yes, we fought a duel over swift-Kalat, but that's where it stops.

That's as far as we'll take the pattern."

"Oh," said Maggy, again injecting a note of disappointment into the vocoder's phrasing, "you mean she doesn't love swift-Kalat?"

Om im dropped forward, hiding his face in his hands, while his shoulders shook in suppressed laughter. Tocohl closed her eyes and sighed, then she opened them again and looked at the reddening Alfvaen. "Do you want to answer that one, Alfvaen? I don't see how we can make it any worse than it already is."

Scarlet-faced, Alfvaen tilted her head up to face swift-Kalat. In perfect Jenji, she told him not only that she loved him, but precisely how sure she was of her truth, and that was very sure indeed.

Swift-Kalat replied in kind, stroking her cheek to seal the bargain.

"She says," Maggy began to Om im, "she-""Not necessary, Maggy," said Om im, still shaking with laughter. "For some things no translation is needed."

"But you see," said Maggy, "that's right, too. And the fiction told me how to find Tocohl, so why aren't you going to fight a duel properly."

"Because I don't want to fight a duel with Alfvaen," Tocohl said firmly.

Alfvaen drew her glance away from swift-Kalat, took in the glare with which Tocohl favored the arachne, and said, matching Tocohl's firmness, "And I don't want to fight a duel with Tocohl either, Maggy."

"Oh," said Maggy, this time in quite a different tone, "you don't want to. Why didn't you say so in the first place?"

This set Om im laughing again, and Tocohl nearly bit her lip in two trying not to join him.

"Alfvaen," Maggy went on, "do you wish me to forget the duel you and Tocohl already had?"

Tocohl gasped out, "Alfvaen, she means that literally. She'll wipe her records of it if you ask her to."

"I see." Alfvaen looked thoughtfully at the arachne. "No, Maggy, don't forget it. You need it to remind you that fiction doesn't tell you the whole story."

"Thank you." The arachne bobbed slightly.

Alfvaen continued to watch it for a moment, then she said, "If you like, Maggy, when layli-layli calulan says I'm healthy enough to release from custody, I could demonstrate the standard dueling techniques for you..."

"Oh, yes. I'd like that very much!" The arachne suddenly contracted.

"Maggy?" said Tocohl, worried by the abruptness of the movement.

The arachne unfolded and p.r.i.c.ked gingerly across Alfvaen to stare upward at Tocohl.

"Tocohl?"-the voice held puzzled surprise-"I know what 'like' means!"

Tocohl could feel the smile spread from her toes to her scalp. In deep satisfaction, she said, "And about time, too. Good for you, Maggy! I like you very much."

Maggy made no reply. In fact, for the next several hours, she was remarkably quiet. To Tocohl, it was clear that Maggy needed some time to herself, to think things out. So Tocohl took the opportunity to catch the rest she still needed.

At long last, she was awakened by Maggy's urgent pinging, and by the more urgent rocking of the arachne at her side.

(What is it, Maggy?) (They're here.) (They made good time. That's a lot sooner than I'd expected.) Tocohl sighed. Rubbing her hands over her face, she tried to compose herself. When simply waking didn't achieve that end, she began a Methven ritual.

Maggy, uncharacteristically, interrupted. (Tocohl,) she said, in what would have been exasperation in anyone else's voice, (we could skip. I can have the skiff in and out before they can get Kejesli's permission to land.) A flash of lightning lit the door membrane to an eerie glow. Tocohl pointed an elbow. (In that?) (I'll risk it.) (There's no need. I told you before, Maggy: I pay my debts.) (Yes, but-) (No buts.) She looked fondly at the arachne. (But I appreciate the offer.) Again Maggy made no reply. Then she said, (I like you too, Tocohl-very much.) In response, Tocohl laid her hand on the fat body of the arachne, caressing it lightly.

(Why did you do that?) Tocohl glanced at her hand, drew it away. (h.e.l.lspark gestural reflex,) she said, (affectionate feelings expressed in touch.) (Like you hug Geremy when you see him?) (Just so.) (Put up your hood.)Tocohl c.o.c.ked her head to look inquiringly at the arachne. (Why?) (It's a surprise,) said Maggy. (Put up your hood.) Puzzled, Tocohl did so. A second or so later, when the hood had molded to her face and sealed itself, Tocohl felt a phantom weight on her lap. She glanced down, aware that the sensation was Maggy manipulating the 2nd skin but wondering at the purpose of it. The phantom, very gingerly, leaned against her.

Laughing, Tocohl closed her eyes and concentrated on the feel of it: a small form had perched itself on her lap and leaned fondly against her. Small arms encircled her waist, careful to avoid the injured rib, a head leaned against her cheek-a head complete to tickling curls. The phantom gave her a shy, childlike hug.

(Oh, Maggy,) she said. Even in subvocalization, it came out a husky whisper. Then in reflex, her arms closed around the phantom-to find, to the doubling of her surprise, that Maggy had thought of that too.

Her 2nd skin limited her movement to where the child's body would have been. Her arms found small sharp child shoulders to hug in return. The illusion was broken only by the lack of sensation in her bare hands. That, she ignored; concentrating on the presence, she gave a second hug.

Then the weight was abruptly gone. Tocohl opened her eyes to find them stinging with the start of tears. Her lap was, as she had known all along, empty.

The soft voice in her implant said, (Did I do right?) (Yes,) said Tocohl, unable to say more.

(The sensors said so but-Are you going to cry?) Tocohl grinned. (Actually, I'm not sure. But it's nothing to worry about if I do. It's a normal reaction to strong emotion, even strong positive emotion. No, in fact, I have this horrible feeling I'm going to start giggling.) (That would be better.) And that did it: Tocohl did indeed start giggling. (Maggy, why in the world did you opt for a child-sized impression?) (You said I was three, and Buntec calls me "kid.") (Ah, that makes perfect sense then.) Tocohl grinned foolishly at the arachne. (For a kid, you're something special.) (Thank you,) said Maggy, and her tone retained little of her previous primness.

A shout for the door startled them both. Tocohl's hands dropped to her lap, the arachne hopped to the side where it could see beyond her. Layli-layli calulan gave Kejesli a fierce look of remonstrance, cutting off a second shout.