maybe their best chance.”
The newsroom vanished. “Important recorded announcement,” said a man in
Dennitzan uniform. “A dangerous agent of Merseia is at large in
Zorkagrad or vicinity.” What must be a portrait from some xenological
archive, since it was not of Chives, flashed onto the screen. “He landed
eight days ago, posing as a peaceful traveler. Four days ago” (the
computer must redub every 18.8 hours) “he was identified, but fought his
way free of arrest and disappeared. He is of this species, generally
known as Shalmuan. When last seen he wore a white kilt and had taken a
blaster from a patrolman after injuring the entire squad. I repeat, your
government identifies him as a Merseian secret agent, extremely
dangerous because of his mission as well as his person. If you see him,
do not take risks. Above all, do not try talking with him. If he cannot
safely be killed, report the sighting to your nearest military post. A
reward of 10,000 gold dinars is offered for information leading to his
death or capture. Dead or alive, he himself is worth a reward of
50,000–”
Air hissed between Kossara’s teeth. Flandry sat moveless for minutes
before he said stonily, “That’s how. Somebody, in some fashion,
recognized Chives. That meant I was around, and most likely you. That
meant–any contact between your family and the Gospodar–yes.”
Kossara wept anew, in sorrow and in rage.
Yet at the end it was she who lifted her head and said, hoarse but
level-toned, “I’ve thought of where we might go, Dominic, and what we
might try to do.”
XVI
—
Clouds and a loud raw wind had blown in across the ocean. Morning along
the Obala, the east coast of Rodna, was winterlike, sky the color of
lead, sea the colors of iron and gunmetal. But neither sky nor sea was
quiet. Beneath the overcast a thin smoky wrack went flying; surf
cannonaded and exploded on reefs and beaches.
All Nanteiwon boats were in, big solid hulls moored behind the jetty or
tied at the wharf. Above the dunes the fisher village huddled. Each
house was long and wide as an ychan family needed, timbers tarred black,
pillars that upheld the porch carved and brightly painted with ancestral
symbols, blue-begrown sod roof cable-anchored against hurricanes, a
spacious and sturdy sight. But there were not many houses. Beyond them
reached the flatlands the dwellers cultivated, fields harvested bare and
brown, trees a-toss by roadsides, on the horizon a vague darkening which
betokened the ringwall of the Kazan. The air smelled of salt and
distances.
Inside the home of Ywodh were warmth, sun-imitating fluorescents, musky
odor of bodies, growls to drown out the piping at the windows. Some
forty males had crowded between the frescoed walls of the mootroom,
while more spilled throughout the building. They wore their common garb,
tunic in bright colors thrown over sinewy green frame and secured by a
belt which held the knuckleduster knife. But this was no common
occasion. Perched on tails and feet, muscles knotted, they stared at the
three on the honor-dais.
Two were human. One they knew well, Kossara Vymezal. She used to come
here often with Trohdwyr, brother to Khwent, Yffal, drowned Qythwy …
How weary she looked. The other was a tall man who bore a mustache,
frosted brown hair, eyes the hue of today’s heaven.
Ywodh, Hand of the Vach Anochrin, steadcaptain of Nanteiwon, raised his
arms. “Silence!” he called. “Hark.” When he had his desire, he brought
his gaunt, scarred head forward and told them:
“You have now heard of the outrages done and the lies proclaimed.
Between dawn, when I asked you to keep ashore today, and our meeting
here, I was in phonetalk up and down the Obala. Not an ychan leader but
swore us aid. We know what Merseian rule would bring.
“Let us know, too, how empty of hope is a mere rebellion against
rebellion. We have boats, civilian aircars, sporting guns; a
revolutionary government would have military flyers and armored
groundcars, spacecraft, missiles, energy weapons, gases, combat
shielding. The plotters have ignored us partly because they took for
granted we care little about a change of human overlords and might