When Persun and Sebastian Mechanic reached Opal Hill they left Rigo in the aircar while they called Persun’s father on the tell-me and told him they wanted to evacuate the estancia. Rigo was unconscious. There was nothing they could do for him; he needed to go to the hospital in Commons at once, but there was this other very important consideration.
“Evacuate the village?” Hime Pollut asked. “You’re joking, Pers.”
“Father, listen. Rigo Yrarier killed at least two Hippae. I don’t know how many men died in the ruckus we left behind us, but some must have. I’m remembering the stories of Darenfeld estancia. How it was burned after somebody wounded a Hippae. How all the people in the village died. The people at Opal Hill village, the servants here in the big house, they’re our people, Father. Commons people.”
“How many at Opal Hill?”
“A hundred and a bit. If you can get Roald Few to send out some trucks …”
“Will the people be ready?”
“Sebastian is on his way to the village now. If you can get the trucks we use when we go into winter quarters, they can bring the livestock in. They’ll need their animals….”
A long silence. “Can you bring the foreigners from the estancia?”
“His Excellency, yes. His secretary and her sister. The old priest. That’s all.”
“Where’s the wife? The children? The other priest? Yrarier’s fancy woman?”
“Asmir Tanlig took Eugenie to Commons this morning. None of the others are here, but I don’t have time to explain about them now.” He left the tell-me and ran through the dwelling, stopping all the servants he met. They were all from the village. Some he sent to find Father Sandoval and Andrea Chapelside and her sister, telling them he could allow only an hour for packing. Waiting even that long might endanger Rigo’s life, but he could not simply gather up the women and fly away, leaving all their belongings behind. They would need things. Women always needed things.
Marjorie. She, too, would need things. He gathered three of the maids together and told them to pack Marjorie’s things. “Her clothes,” he said. “Her personal things.”
And Stella’s? Would Stella ever be found? What did Stella value? “How long, Persun? What shall we pack?”
“Never mind,” he said in frustration. “Take a few sensible clothes for Marjorie and Stella, their jewelry and treasures, and leave it at that.”
And perhaps it was all mere supposition, mere paranoia. Perhaps the Hippae would do nothing to Opal Hill at all. Perhaps the village would be safe.
And perhaps not. In panic he went back to the tell-me. “Roald Few has borrowed four cargo trucks from the port,” his father said. “They’re on their way. He agrees on the importance of saving the livestock.”
Well then, it was not merely his own fear. Or, if it was, he had been successful in spreading it about. He scurried through the place to Marjorie’s study, intent upon saving anything there that she might ever want again. He came face to face with the panels he had carved for her, a lady moving among the trees of a copse, sometimes clearly seen, sometimes hidden, her lovely face always slightly turned away. Like a dream, just out of reach. There were birds in the trees. He reached out to touch one of them, stroke one of them, wondering foolishly if there were time to cut the panels out and save them. He broke away with an exclamation. No time.
When he had gathered together what he could, he picked up Sebastian and those who were ready and drove the aircar directly to the hospital near the Port Hotel. The doctors carried Rigo away; Andrea, her sister, and Father Sandoval went to the port hotel.
Asmir was there. “Where’s Eugenie?” Persun asked.
“I don’t know. Wasn’t she with you?” Asmir asked in return.
‘This morning she wanted to come in to Commons.”
“She told me she’d changed her mind. I just came to pick up some supplies.”
Persun counted his passengers on his fingers and ran to ask them where Eugenie was. No one knew. He flew back to Opal Hill, anxious to use all the daylit hours. In the village the trucks were loading: people, livestock, necessary equipment. Another truck landed as he stood there. Sebastian was driving it.