[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Keo knocked on the door twice. It was opened by a thin, graceful young man
dressed in a formal gray suit. He swung his arm wide with a cautious smile.
"Able Lenk is just finishing a nap.
He'll be with us in a few minutes. My name is Ferrier, Samuel Inman Ferrier."
We shook hands formally.
A mechanical clock mounted on the bulkhead over the door chimed midnight.
Salap sat on a couch. Shatro sat beside him, eyes darting nervously, as if he
were a little boy about to see a doctor. Shirla, Randall, and I sat in
individual chairs spaced around the cabin, which stretched across the bow of
the ship. The cabin beyond, Lenk's sleeping cabin, was much smaller. I thought
it odd that he would choose the bow; apprentices much preferred to stay out of
the bow, especially in heavy seas. Perhaps he had a perverse sense of
asceticism.
Shelves on the bulkhead opposite my seat contained a few dozen books, none of
them ornately bound, and all of them well-used. They seemed to include statute
books and city record summaries.
I wondered where the clavicle was kept. Would Lenk take it with him on a
journey as uncertain as this?
Ferrier served us mat fiber tea on a black lizboo tray. As we drank, I heard
faint shuffles behind the door of the sleeping cabin.
The door opened, and Jaime Cart Lenk entered. I had seen pictures of him from
forty-five years before. Then, he had been a vigorous man of natural middle
age, handsome and conservatively dressed, with a presence even in the records
that radiated assurance and power. Now, Lenk was still tall, unbent by his
years, his hair still mostly dark, his face deeply wrinkled but in all the
right places: laugh lines at corners of lips and eyes, lines of sternness near
the laugh lines, and a brow that seemed monumentally smooth and untroubled, a
tall, unfurrowed brow whose owner had slept cleanly and in assurance of the
truth for many decades. He wore a simple long green robe. His sandaled feet,
peeking from beneath the hem of the robe, were broad and splay-
toed. He slowly turned to face us and shake hands all around.
"Thank you for being patient," he said, staring at us one by one as if we were
old friends.
"Ferrier, I'll take a cup of that tea." He sat in a large black high-backed
chair bolted in the corner, beneath the books, and when he was settled, he
looked up in sadness and said, "I deeply regret the loss of Captain
Keyser-Bach and his researchers. The loss of a ship full of men and women is
one thing, evil enough and hard to bear, but the death of such a man..." He
shook his head and accepted the cup of steaming tea, then set it on a side
table, ignoring it. "I am gratified, of course, that you survived. Sers Keo
and Fassid have told me some of your story --
about the storm, how our escort of Brion's ships may have frightened you into
its winds..." He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing in his wrinkled, corded
throat. His sadness was genuine.
Despite his clear brow, he had obviously experienced a lot of sadness
recently.
"You could not have known, Ser Lenk," Salap said. "It is remarkable fortune to
be rescued by you."
"These seas are so rarely traveled ... If any ships would have picked you up,
that they would be part of this absurd entourage only adds a peck to the
improbability. And that is the main part of our problem, no? I go to Hsia, to
Naderville, precisely because we have had so little traffic with the people
who live there." He examined us closely, his jaw working. He lifted the
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Legacy.txt (129 of 183) [5/21/03
12:38:22 AM]
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Legacy.txt cup and sipped from
it. The warm liquid seemed to invigorate him. "You are Ser Salap." He turned
Page 173
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
his head to Randall. "And you are Ser Randall. Both of you sailed often with
Captain Keyser-Bach.
When he made his request, he spoke of you as necessary members of the
expedition."
Randall inclined his head, then looked up at Lenk with calm, large eyes.
"We've made important discoveries, Ser Lenk," Salap said.
Lenk followed his own line of thought. "I'll read your reports when they're
written. Now, there's so little time ... I have been in need of more
researchers. Questions of considerable importance have arisen. Difficulties of
some magnitude."
Salap, rebuffed so smoothly, stared a little pop-eyed at Lenk, but even he
lacked the gall to interrupt Jaime Cart Lenk.
"The Naderville researchers claim to have made great strides with the ecos on
Hsia. The researcher on my ship does not credit these reports. I don't know
what to think."
"What sort of strides?" Salap asked.
Lenk looked over our heads and lifted his cup. He smiled as if at some great
joke, too large to deserve laughter. "Queens and hidden masters, palaces in
the clouds, Cibola, Atlantis, the Afterlife. I do not know which Brion means.
But I see his ships, and I know the power that he shows us, that he's amassed
in the past two years and has used against us." He made a little shrug and
lowered the cup. "He is not mad, whatever his generals do."
"Blockades, sieges, piracy," Randall said.
Lenk leaned his head to one side, scratching at the lobe of one ear. "General
Beys accompanies us," he said.
"He raided nineteen villages before we left Calcutta," Randall continued. His
face colored with anger. "Stole tools and metal stores. Took children. Killed
some or all of the citizens."
"It pains me to think of the children and citizens," Lenk said softly. "I hate
to bargain under those circumstances, but there was no choice."
"Brion denies it all, of course," Allrica Fassid said, entering the cabin on
soft slippered feet. She closed the door behind her, nodded casually to Lenk,
gave Randall a stern, half-puzzled look, and apologized for being late. "I've
just come back from number fifteen. Beys and Captain
Yolenga say they've received their final instructions. May I speak before our
guests?"
Lenk gave permission with a lift of his hand.
"We're to sail to the main port and up a canal to an inland lake. Our charts
indicate this canal has been modified by the ecos, and that the lake is
isolated from Naderville proper. It may be the site of these alleged
researches. Ser Keo, have you told our guests what to expect?"
"As much as we know," Keo said. "A magnificent lack of detail."
"Good. We'll have little time to talk once we arrive, and not much more on the
way there.
But you must keep your eyes open and digest what you see. It may be crucial to
our negotiations."
"We need to know if it's a bluff," Keo said, then his face flushed as if he
had spoken out of turn.
"No bluff," Lenk said, shaking his head.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]