She stood up. "My name is Joanne Nicole."
Hard footsteps crossed the room and a rough hand grasped her left arm. "We must go now."
There was the sharp odor of happy paste. Nicole reached for the arm that was holding hers and touched the cuff of a sleeve. Drac civilians wear robes.
"Who are you?"
"I said my name is Tora Kia. I am the firstborn of Tora Soam."
"This sleeve says you are wearing a military uniform."
"I am-was-Tsien Denvedah." There was a laugh; an almost hysterical laugh. "You will find the other sleeve empty, human."
TEN
And Lurrvanna looked up from its bandaged stumps and spoke to its students:
"Talma is forbidden to us. The Talman Kovah has been destroyed. Our friends have been either murdered or frightened into hiding. Our writings earn their authors the loss of their hands. Rodaak and its soldiers would have The Talman disappear from Sindie.
"But memory is the refuge of the Talmani, and it is there where we shall hide The Talman from Rodaak. Fix the words into your minds; then take them, whisper them to others, and have those others fix into their minds The Talman.
"The eternity of truth makes a friend of time. In time, Rodaak will no longer be. In time, we shall make known again the value of talma. In time, The Talman will again be written and the walls of the new Talman Kovah will stand upon these broken stones. In time, tomorrow will come."
As Nicole was being hurried from the Chirn Kovah into Tora Kia’s waiting vehicle, a strange thought crept into her mind: she was curious about these creatures, and what would happen to her; but, if she could have seen, she would have been terrified. Terrified of everything.
The loathing fairly radiated from Tora Kia, but it could easily have been human hate. The strangeness-the alien unknown-of everything was made almost familiar because the images from her eyes were prevented from overpowering her other senses and her ability to think.
Nicole was seated upon plush upholstery, a door slammed, and she inhaled the eternal smell of new car. More doors slamming, a weight depressed the upholstery to her left, a whine, then a gentle pressure against her back as the vehicle accelerated. The sounds of other traffic came dimly through the vehicle’s sound insulation.
Tora Kia barked out an order: "To the estate, Baadek."
"Your parent asked me to deliver these notes -"
"Then return to the city and deliver them-after you have delivered this… guest to the estate!"
Both of the other occupants of the vehicle remained silent as the sounds of traffic died and the change in pressure on Nicole’s eardrums said that they were climbing in altitude. Still there were the sounds of the road. They were moving up into some mountains.
"You are silent, human."
"I didn’t think, Tora Kia, that you would appreciate conversation coming from my direction."
"Dah!"
They rode in silence a moment longer.
"Tora Kia, your parent doesn’t seem to carry your weight of hate."
"My parent! My parent has all of its limbs. To Tora Soam, the war is… an immense puzzle to be solved; a fascinating problem. I think my parent basks in the size and complexity of the puzzle. You and I are nothing more than two factors among the trillions that comprise this puzzle."
"You seem bitter."
"And they say that you are blind." Heavy sarcasm.
They seemed to go higher, the road twisting left and right. The silence in the compartment was oppressive. The sharp smell of happy paste again assaulted her nostrils and the one called Baadek spoke. "Kia, your parent-"
"Mind the road, Baadek! When Tora Soam has carried its butcher ax against the enemy on Amadeen, then its views upon my medications will be of interest to me." The sharp smell remained in the compartment. "Ah, human. What an ugly thing you are."
"It would concern me more, Tora Kia, if I could see."
The Drac laughed, then that sharp smell grew sharper. "It is true. The war has treated us both badly, human. Was your life’s work dependent upon your eyes? That is my sincere wish."
"Why?"
"I am looking for an equality of disaster."
"I’ve seen Drac soldiers with artificial limbs before. Those soldiers seemed to function adequately."
"Emmmm. True, it takes little skill to fry a human. But I am a musician, Joanne Nicole. The machine the fleet will pay to have hammered onto this stump will find the strings of a tidna difficult to master."
The tidna: a kind of harp. "I am sorry."
"Sorrow is a cheap fee." A pause and more of that sharp smell. "Baadek! Stop here!"
"Tora Kia, your parent will have my skin for a cape if it should find out-"
"Stop here, you miserable fungus, or I will reach up there and pull off your head."
The vehicle slid to a stop and Nicole heard the door on Tora Kia’s side open as a blast of icy air entered the compartment. The Drac’s hand pulled at her left arm. "Come. Come with me, Joanne Nicole."
She slid across the seat and stepped out into ankle-deep snow. Tora Kia dragged her along until she had lost both of her sandals and stood barefoot.
"Baadek! Baadek, turn off the car!"
The whine of the car died, and on the gentle wind Nicole heard… music. Strange, haunting notes coming from below. "Down there, in the Valley, Joanne Nicole. That was my kovah."
They listened for a time to the sounds. It felt as though knives were being thrust again and again through her feet. "Tora Kia, I am cold."
"The Universe is cold." The breeze brought her that sharp smell again. "My parent. You think it feels gratitude to you for pulling Sin Vidak from the oven?"
"That is what Tora Soam-"
Torn Kia’s laugh seemed to be aimed at more than its words revealed. "Tora Soam feels nothing! The Ovjetah of the Talman Kovah would have you at the estate as an object of curiosity-experimentation. Sin Vidak-that is the excuse my parent uses to make housing you acceptable in the eyes of… aaaah!"
A strong hand slapped her face, sending her reeling into the snow. Geometric shapes flashed before her eyes as the snow covered and burned her face. As though it were far away, Nicole heard a door slam, then soft footsteps. A hand pulled at her right shoulder, lifting her face from the snow.
Nicole pushed the hand away, sat back upon her legs, and wiped the snow from her face. There were still the mournful sounds of music on the air as the one called Baadek spoke softly to her. "I ask you a favor, human. If you do it, I will always be in your debt." Baadek put its hands beneath her arms and lifted her to a standing position. Nicole’s face still burned from the snow and the force of Kia’s blow.
"What’s the debt of a Drac worth?"
"Human, Tora Kia carries the Tora line. Its behavior here would shame its parent. I ask you to be silent about what Kia did."
Nicole waved a hand in what she thought to be the direction of the car. "First, get me out of the snow; second, find my sandals; third, I will think about it." Baadek began leading her toward the car and Nicole stopped dead in the snow. "But I will tell you one thing right now, Drac: if that child of a kiz hits me again, I will take off its remaining arm and stuff it down its throat!"
"There is nothing to fear from Kia now. Kia is asleep."