Lady Fire’s curses, his son, red, wet, and bawling, in his power-gifted hands, his father’s voice, Heart’s wary eyes…
“The Words of the Nameless Powers,” he muttered.
“Strange,” Aria folded her arms. “The Words of the Nameless forbid climbing the World’s Wall. ‘There is no place for you but here.’” She touched her hands again.
“They also say a Teacher may bear or sire children without marriage, but only if the other is unwed, and they say that anyone who knowingly harbors one who does not hear the Words in the Temple must recant or be executed.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “The words of the Nameless say too much to be endured.”
Aria glanced away toward the view wall and didn’t ask any more.
“Listen, Aria.” Eric leaned forward and rested his forearms on his knees. “I understand why you want to return, truly I do, but even if there was something we could do, there is still no way to reach the Realm. If we had an armed shuttle or an upgraded runner and an experienced crew, maybe, maybe, we could make it, but this is only a runner’s side ship and I’m little more than a glorified passenger. I never had the thirteen years it takes to learn to pilot one of these by oneself.”
A gleam sparked in the depths of Aria’s black eyes. “So my Lord Teacher does not really know if this ship could get past the Vitae, does he?”
Eric pulled back. “Yes, I do know.”
“You just said you did not.” Now she leaned forward, eagerness shining in her features. “Does the ship know?”
“What?”
“Does the ship know? Are there records? Histories, documents of what it has done in the past? Maybe…” She frowned. “Operational parameters?” She spoke the last two words in Standard.
“And if there were?” Her confidence nagged at him. It was ridiculous. He’d left her barely three weeks ago, but that was time enough for her to realize how complex life was out here.
What does she expect of me?
“Then I might be able to find us a way to dodge the Vitae’s prying eyes.”
Eric threw back his head and laughed. “You! Aria, they may have taught you to read and write at the labs, but you’ve got no idea the level of complexity we’re dealing with. It takes years to learn how to operate even a simple ship…”
“If my Lord Teacher will permit me to finish,” she said tartly, “this despised one might be able to tell him how she intends to manage it.”
She told him about her stones in short sentences and carefully chosen words, as if she had been rehearsing the speech so she wouldn’t make any mistakes. Eric realized that was probably exactly what she had done.
When she finished, he said, “That’s insane.”
“No more insane than what you can do.” She gestured toward his hands. “You should hear yourself talk. You are so convinced that these Skymen and their steel and silicon are so superior, you’ve never even stopped to ask why they care about us. You! A Teacher, a power-gifted, the first among the People along with the Royals. If we are so inferior, so…primitive and so close to death, why are the Skymen willing to make war over us? If the Realm is such a barren, useless piece of rock, what is their interest in it? You cannot tell me the all-powerful Vitae just want a place to warm their feet. You cannot tell me the Unifiers are acting for our poor benefit.” She leaned forward again. “Let me prove to you what I can do. Let me prove to you the worth of those named by the Nameless.”
It was too much. It was not enough. She could sit there and lecture him, she hadn’t seen…she didn’t know…she’d never slaved for them the way he had, never sold herself for their protection and their money.
“I am not a servant of the Nameless,” he said. “I have known too many other masters since then.”
To his surprise, she started to laugh. Her whole body shook with it, and she dropped her forehead into her hands.
“Oh, Nameless Powers preserve me!” she giggled. “Oh, Garismit’s Eyes!” She lifted her head again and there were tears streaming down her cheeks. “Do you think the Nameless care who else you serve? The Teachers serve the Temples, the Nobles and the Royals serve themselves, and the Nameless do not care.”
His hands opened wide at his side, the fingers straight and rigid as sticks of wood. “You don’t understand! The Aunorante Sangh found the Realm because of me! I led them straight to it! This is all happening because of my heresy!”
His breathing was ragged and his throat was raw and his ears rang.
Aria watched him silently for a moment, then she said, “All the more reason you should go back and make it right.”
He wanted to shout that it was not that simple, that there was no returning, not for him, not ever, that he would not give them satisfaction by recanting his actions. That he could not, he would not, be forced to regret what he had done in front of the Seablade House, however much he might do so when he was alone.
But he couldn’t. All he could do was stand there and shake like a terrified fool, watching her watch him with her impassive, unforgiving eyes.
At last those eyes widened and she said, “Nameless Powers preserve me, they really did get to you, didn’t they?”
“Yes,” he whispered. “Yes.”
He had no idea how long they stood like that. He was too caught up in the riot inside him and the memory of those long years when he thought he was free. Now that illusion was shattered at his feet and all that was left was a broken, terrified slave whose masters had proved disloyal.
At last, he ran his hands through his hair, a habit he had learned from Perivar. “If I gave you the operational parameters, do you really think you could find a way to get the ship back to the Realm?”
He expected a show of triumph, but again his expectations were wrong. She simply shrugged. “I think I might. If I get enough information.”
“I think I know what you need.”
The ghost box was already plugged into the comm board. “Perivar?” he asked.
She nodded. “He set it up and worked the transmission by remote from Kethran.”
Eric looked at the cube for a moment, tracing the length of cable with his eyes. “Why didn’t he come with you?”
Aria hesitated. “Because he felt he owed a greater debt to his partner’s children. Kiv was killed because he refused to hand me over to the Aun…the Vitae.”
Eric felt his shoulders stiffen. He left? After everything…he hung his head. What did I ever really bring him? I saved his life and he saved mine and we spent the last six years trying to forget about each other. Why should I be surprised he’s left me on my own? He felt an itch between his shoulder blades and remembered Aria was watching him.
He straightened up. “Then you know that this"—he laid his hand on the box—"is basically all the two contraband runners who took me off the Realm knew about their ship.”
He tapped the screen three times to bring up Kessa’s image by itself. “What history I’ve got of this ship is in here, and if anyone could get past the Vitae, it was her.” He pointed at Kessa’s image and shook himself to try to chase away the memory of her lying dead on the deck plates.
Aria sat in the terminal’s chair and drew one of her stones out of the pouch. “I can learn without the stone, but it makes rearranging things later much more difficult.” She hit the PLAY key on the console and cupped the stone in her hand.
“Whaddaya want?” demanded Kessa.
“I want to know about the U-Kenai,” answered Aria. Her voice was heavy, as if there were a weight pressing against it.
Kessa started talking.” U-Kenai, it means ‘Second Chance.’ Good little ship…”