Jo clayton diadem 09, p.39
Jo Clayton - Diadem 09,
p.39
Wolff system.
Teegah’s Limit.
The Pajungg Hunt was completed. Grey, Ticutt, Taggert were sitting in the Records and Accounting room at Hunters, flaking their file reports. With Aleytys’ first ship signed over to her, Shadith had taken off to hunt up Swardheld/Quayle so she could return his lander. She’d be back eventually; the greater part of the Ajin’s stash was in Aleytys’s lokbox at Wolff’s only bank.
The RMoahl ship was a dark blotch filling the screen.
“Call them,” Aleytys said.
A square bloomed in the center of the screen, in the screen a face that only another RMoahl could love: dark leathery skin, flat nose, thin horizontal nostrils, long upper lip, mouth a gash filled with omnivore’s teeth. Antennae twitched from pompoms of orange fuzz. Great yellow eyes with slit pupils blinked slowly. The RMoahl second, Mok’tekii.
“Show me to them.”
Mok-tekii’s antennae whipped about, the orange fur of his pompoms stirred as if blown by an erratic wind.
Aleytys sat up, the grassy knoll remolding itself to support her. “Hounds of the RMoahl, how would you like to quit this tedious watch and go home?”
“Don’t mock us, Aleytys Hunter.”
“I do not mock, Mok-tekii Second. Or if I do, only a little. You’ve complicated my life quite a lot, you know. Well, that’s finished now. I have come into my heritage and rid myself of yours.” She opened the box on her lap and lifted out the diadem, held it up, the flexible round draped over her hand. “I hope you take better care of it this time. It’s empty now and hungry. If you want it still, come get it.”
“Forgive us, despina. We do indeed desire the diadem, but to come aboard that ship …”
“I understand. Abra.” When the android was in the viewrange, she pointed at it and said, “Abra will wait in the lock for whomever or whatever you choose to send. Meaning no discourtesy, Hound, I’m quite as reluctant to visit as you are.”
The diadem passed smoothly into RMoahl claws.
The koeiyi Sensayii appeared in the screen, went through an elaborate salute. “All honor is yours, Aleytys Hunter. The debt is ours. Should you have need, we three will come however far you call.”
Aleytys suppressed a chuckle. The koeiyi had shown little sign he possessed anything resembling humor. All in the best heroic tradition, she thought. Ah well, he means well. She sketched a bow of her own, spread her hands. “No debt at all, koeiyi. Let there be peace between my kin and yours.”
To her relief the koeiyi had nothing more to say. The square blanked and the RMoahl globe ship backed away, began to gather speed. In seconds it was beyond the reach of her screens, running toward the speed it needed to slip into the intersplit and dive toward the RMoahl sun.
Wolff
signing off
Grey came to her. In a way his time inside the pocket universe had been like a wild trek, stripping away confusions and hurt and anger. He wanted her, needed her, yet he knew he could live well enough without her if they couldn’t reach some accommodation mat would let them share a life. It wasn’t going to be easy. She knew that. He knew it. And quietly he came to her, without fuss he came to her, knowing her more intimately, in his way, than those who lived within her head had known her. Understanding that her need for home was far greater than his, he came to her.
He said beside her as they’d sat so many times, watching the sun go down, watching one of the paler more subtle sunsets, a cloudless sky, the glaciers summer-shrunken.
What she’d grasped on Ibex she knew more intimately now. In the first part of her life she’d had a goal that was simple and essentially extrinsic. What lay before her now was more complex. The thing she wanted now lived in words like society, relationship, friend, compromise, patience, involvement, building. And time. Vrithian had altered her outlook on a lot of things. Time to be a part of Wolff in ways she’d never been. She didn’t even know the parents of the girl who took care of her horses. Head had produced her when Aleytys asked for someone. Who was she? What was her life like at home? Why did she prefer a small cramped apartment built onto a stable? Why wonder they suspect me, the Wolfflan, no wonder they don’t trust me. What do they know about me? Nothing except rumor. She smiled to herself. Turn me into your comfortable neighborhood housewife worrying about paying the bills and what her kids were doing with whom. Kids? I suppose so. Now that I have a past and a future to give them. My Sharl, my lovely son, you came too soon. I’m not going to look for you; I’ve said farewell to you twice now and that’s enough. Well, we’ve got time. If nothing else, you and I have time.
The last embers of the sunset died. The fire was down to coals and the room was beginning to chill. Grey rose from his chair, stood waiting for her.
She went to him, leaned against him, enjoying the mingled odors of hair, flesh and clothing.
Wordless, they walked to the door. Their talking was done. She touched a sensor, let him draw her into the hall.
Behind them the shutters rolled across the windows. Crawling over the coals, the fire moved slower and slower until it died completely. The house creaked and sighed into its summer temper and settled into a deepening stillness.
Quester's Endgame, Jo Clayton - Diadem 09
