Klimov wasn’t a fool. He knew there were hard men in the Sissie’s crew and that a whispered order from Daniel Leary might be the last anybody heard of two nobles from Novy Sverdlovsk. Even so, he didn’t flinch.
In the recent past Daniel had known everything, been all things, and some memories of the things closest to his present life remained like dust-motes glinting in the sun. This was the man who’d faced down a peasant waving the bloody scythe with which he’d killed his wife and her lover bare moments before, he thought; and smiled more broadly.
“There’s no trick, your excellency,” Daniel said. He thought he could stand up now; perhaps in a moment he’d try. “My nation, Cinnabar, has need of a ship. Whereas money . . .”
He gurgled a laugh. “I’ve never needed more money than what it took to buy the next round of drinks or a lady’s dinner,” he said, noting the rueful agreement in Hogg’s expression. “Besides, the Earth Diamond came from Novy Sverdlovsk; it should go back there.”
Count Klimov bowed stiffly at the waist, then straightened. “Captain Leary,” he said, “I accept your offer. I will sign whatever documents you desire.”
He cleared his throat. “Now,” he said. “When do you expect to fulfill your part of the bargain?”
“Immediately,” said Daniel. He tried to get up. He could visualize every muscle fiber, every nerve cell, but for a moment that conscious awareness replaced the reflexes that should’ve brought action. He laughed again as Hogg and Woetjans lifted him upright, worry carving deep clefts in their faces.
“I’m all right,” Daniel said. “I’m better than all right, but it’s like being drunk, that’s all.”
“I’ve bloody well seen you drunk, master,” Hogg said grimly, holding Daniel’s left arm over his shoulders as Woetjans supported the right. “You were never like this!”
Daniel felt existence shrivel back down to a kernel in his mind; his body worked normally again. “I’m all right,” he repeated, and to prove it he walked to the mummy closest to where the Acolytes had placed him. Hogg and Woetjans didn’t let go, but they permitted his legs to carry his weight.
Daniel opened his right hand. “Hogg,” he said, facing the shrouded, desiccated corpse of the man who had been interface between the Tree and humanity during the previous six decades. “Your knife, if you please.”
Hogg snicked his blade open and slapped the hilt into Daniel’s hand. He and Woetjans moved away. The scores of humans in the great chamber waited, only the whisper of their breath breaking the silence.
Daniel inserted the point at the mummy’s bulging midsection and drew it down in a swift curve; the keen steel ticked on the object beneath. The roots had dried when the Intercessor died; they were silk strong, but they didn’t resist the edge.
He stepped back and closed the knife. “Your excellency,” he said to Count Klimov. “If you’ll in reach there, I think you’ll find the Earth Diamond. My predecessor in this place was John Tsetzes.”
“I never knew,” the Prior whispered. He walked toward the mummy with the cautious determination of a very sick man. “We don’t speak of the persons before they became Intercessor. The most recent elevation came before I joined the Service.”
Daniel closed the knife and returned it to Hogg. The Klimovs knelt together, reaching into the husk that he’d sliced open. The dead roots scrunched to the side as the Klimovs babbled prayers of thanksgiving. They brought the diamond into open air for the first time in sixty years, holding it in both their hands.
Daniel remembered the blaze of white-hot suns; then he was back in a deep cavern, lighted by the Sissies’ handlamps. The huge gem reflected and refracted the beams into a dazzle greater than the originals. Not only continents but the terrain features, rivers and lakes and mountain ranges, were etched on the globe’s inner surface. They scattered the light into a thousand rainbows.
“Your excellency,” Daniel said, “I hope our bargain suits you; for I can tell you, it suits me and the RCN very well indeed!”
* * *
Adele heard the corvette’s klaxon, its sound muffled through the living walls of the tree. Her commo helmet said in Mr. Chewning’s voice, “Five to ship. We’re about to clear sand out of the thrusters. Stay clear by fifty yards or you better be able to grow yourself a new hide. Five out.”