"But it's only-comfort I want. I can't-not men who want more-" Her hand lifted to touch her own lips, lowered, "-than I can give them. Than I have. I'm not explaining myself."
"But you are." His hand lay steady on hers. He looked up at the moon. "The soul is cold and alone when darkness comes. It needs comfort. But the other things, possession, passion, love-ah, they bring hurt."
"Betrayal. Betraying the confidence you give, between a man and a woman."
"Betrayal," Fedya echoed. Her hand warmed now where his touched it. "Perhaps I felt she betrayed me when she died, like the sun, always deserting the moon to the darkness." The light of the moon shadowed his eyes.
"No confidences," said Tess. "Only comfort."
He lifted one hand to cup her face. "Below this rock it is dry."
He was gentle, and quiet, and he knew how to laugh when it was appropriate. He fell asleep afterward, half in her arms, and Tess saw that when he slept he looked much younger, almost as if he were a child again. The roughness of his cloak tickled her skin, but pleasantly, softly, as if it meant to remind her that contentment was all very well, but there was work still to be done. They lay in darkness, the moon far gone on his nightly path.
Something that had been kicking in her had calmed; another alarm now took its place. Work to be done. She slipped on her clothing and wrapped him in his cloak, carefully tucking the cloth around his feet. He did not wake. It was chilly. She reached the crest of the hill, yawning.
A light lit the sacred hill opposite. Shadowy forms, thin and awkward in their movements, clustered around the standing stone, limned by the glow. Tess dropped to her knees and waited and watched.
For a long time they simply stood there, as if they were examining the megalith. She surveyed the ground all around, but she could detect no other watchers. Just as she decided to make a careful circuit, to be sure that no one, especially not Bakhtiian, was also observing this scene, the light cut off.
She scuttled down the hill, keeping low, and at the base of the zhapolaya crouched and stared up. A rectangle of oblivion, drowning out the stars, marked the standing stone. She knew her eyes had adjusted, but she could see no one, no forms, no shapes, nothing but the stone, above her. The Chapalii could not have moved so fast and disappeared so utterly. On the dark face of the stone, a red light winked and vanished. She ducked, expecting laser fire, but none came. The light winked and vanished again, and she waited, and it winked and vanished yet again. A signal.
She crept up the hill. No one shouted. Nothing moved. The light blinked on and off, on and off, beckoning her.
A beacon. The thought struck her forcibly as she reached the top and cautiously stood next to the stone. The megalith dwarfed her, standing three times her width and twice her height. Just above her eye level, embedded within the stone, gleamed the blood-red point. She placed her hand on the stone, next to it, and felt the roughened texture of rock on her skin. But the rock was warm, and the barest pulse throbbed through it, blending with the beat of her heart. She slid her hand across its surface until she covered over the tiny depression within which the point of light lay winking.
The stone gave off an exhalation, like an old woman's tired sigh. Warm air brushed her face. She felt dizzy, disoriented, until she realized that the rock face was pulling away from her, opening. The ground moved, and she stared down into the earth, down a flight of stairs that led-
That led wherever the Chapalii had gone. A ghostly blue light emanated up from the depths.
Tess put a foot on the first step. A hand closed on her shoulder from behind, and she froze. A thin, hard hand, preternaturally strong, and with it, the scent of cinnamon, distinctive and strong. She knew it was a Chapalii before she even attempted to turn.
From below, drifting on the warm draft that rode up the stairs, she heard the low double chime of "signal received," Chapalii standard, and then a voice.
"Progress received. Continue observation of Soerensen. Proceed with caution. Do not act rashly."
A shadow obscured the light from below. "Wa-sen. You were ordered to eliminate intruders." The voice was harsh but inflected as merchant to steward.
"Honorable. I beg to ask pardon, but-"
"Who is this?" The Chapalii halted three steps below Tess and stared.
"Who is this?" asked Tess, coldly formal.
"I beg a thousand pardons, Lady Terese. A thousand, thousand pardons. Your welfare alone precipitated my arrival. I beg you to allow me to escort you away before-"
"Garii? What is this commotion?"
Under his breath, Garii cursed.
"Move aside," said the third Chapalii, who could only be Ishii. Tess laid a hand over her Chapalii knife and backed up, forcing the steward behind her to back up as well, until all four of them stood in the chill air of midnight. The stone closed behind them as soon as they were free of the threshold.
"My God. This is a transmitting station. How did this get here?"
No one replied. The steward kept his hand on her shoulder. His sweet-smelling breath tickled her cheek. In the distance, a bird shrieked, and a rodent's squeal arced and cut off.
"Lady Terese," said Ishii. "I solicit your permission to speak."
"I want an explanation. When did you build this? Why is it here?"
"I regret that I am not at liberty to speak further on this matter, Lady Terese."
"You are not at liberty? I command you, Cha Ishii."
"I regret, Lady Terese, that I am commanded by a higher authority than your own on this matter.''
"If that is so, then why did this higher authority not request permission of the duke to travel on this planet?"
"I submit, Lady Terese, that such permission would have been denied."
"If that is so, Cha Ishii, then why did this higher authority not command permission to travel?"
Another Chapalii appeared out of the dark. They surrounded her on all sides now. The hand gripping her shoulder relaxed and released her, but even standing without restraint, she knew they had her trapped.
"I regret, Lady Terese," replied Ishii, his tone so well-modulated that she could detect no emotion in it at all, "that I am unable to unravel the thinking of those who station outranks my own. I beg you to leave now, and to believe that both your suspicion and your fear of us remain unfounded, and to recall that your own actions brought you to this pass, not any act of ours. Perhaps you will permit Hon Garii to escort you back to the camp."
What could she do? Charge past them down the stairs? What if this confrontation had already attracted notice?
Rhui's interdiction was already breached. To draw the jahar's attention now was to compromise the interdiction even further, and in a more fundamental way. And what had Garii said,' 'to eliminate intruders?'' What if Fedya came looking for her? If Yuri was on watch?
"I will go, Ishii." She dropped the honorific to let him know she was displeased. Lord, what choice did she have? His face was a pale shadow in front of her, the standing stone a huge blot behind him. All four Chapalii bore knives at their belts. Behind Ishii, the red light blinked on, and off, and on, and off-and did not come on again.
"Transmission has ceased," said a faint, disembodied voice that emanated from the stone itself.
"Hon Garii." Tess inclined her head, acknowledging him. The stewards retreated, and Ishii clasped his hands in front of himself in that arrangement known as Lord's Obedience.
She let Garii escort her to the base of the hill. "I will go alone," she said, not wanting to be seen with any Chapalii.
"Lady Terese." Garii hesitated. "I beg of you to let me offer you my thanks. Cha Ishii-" Hearing his hesitation, again, Tess wondered what color his face was, what emotion his level voice hid. "You concealed the knife."