“Can you do that?”
“Of course I can. I’ve known her since I was born. Well, she was he some of the time, and a few other pronouns this language doesn’t have other times, but I’ve known that entity all my life. I can play her well enough for this. It wouldn’t fool any of the Geck delegation. Well, I would probably fool the Radchaai ambassador, she’s useless.”
“That’s the problem,” said Ingray. “The Radchaai ambassador is in contact with Hwaean authorities. She’ll know it’s not the Geck ambassador doing this.”
“No, she won’t,” Tic whispered, contempt somehow managing to come through in the mech’s odd, whistley voice. “The Geck ambassador won’t speak to her. Never has. She’s spent her entire posting—most of her life, I suspect—watching imported Radchaai entertainments and playing dice one hand against the other. And complaining she can’t find a decent cup of tea. So she’s not a problem.”
“The ambassador herself is a problem,” Ingray pointed
out.
“Maybe,” Tic conceded. “But if you recall, she was looking for Pahlad because she knew e was on my ship with me, not because she wanted to hurt em. I’d much rather hand em over to the Geck delegation than the Federacy. Which might happen, if we get em to the station but can’t get em onto my ship before we’re caught.”
“You’re not actually very far from the station,” Ingray said. “Your delay is too short.”
“Good catch. No, I didn’t take my filed route. I changed the ship’s appearance a bit, and I’m sending out a false ID. I’m not docked, though, and I doubt my ID would stand up to scrutiny well enough for me to get permission to dock without tipping off station authorities. Or the ambassador.”
“So, why are you doing this?” It still bothered her. They had known each other for a few weeks, certainly, and he had seemed to be good company. She thought of Tic drinking, just the slightest bit drunk, saying to Pahlad, I like you. The spider mech in the ship’s tiny galley running its claws through Pahlad’s newly short hair. The fact that Pahlad, hearing that the Geck had come into the system, had immediately messaged the captain, even before Ingray had thought of it. “Are you and Pahlad …”
“We are not,” whistled the mech decisively. “E’s certainly not ready for anything like that right now. If it’s something e’s even interested in.”
“Hah!” Ingray exclaimed. “You’ve got a thing for em!”
“Maybe instead we should talk about that young police officer who very obviously has a thing for you. She’s quite fetching in that uniform, I’m sure you’ve already noticed.”
Ingray refused to be embarrassed. “So what if I have? And it isn’t any of your business.”
“My point exactly,” returned the mech. “So where are we headed right now?”
“Home,” said Ingray. “I’ve checked with the staff, the ambassador is gone. And I want to talk to Hevom. Something’s wrong. I mean, there’s something more going on here: Nuncle has said it, Taucris has said it, and they’re right. I want to know what it is. Hevom probably won’t tell me anything, but I want to see what I can find out. And I want some lunch.”
“And after lunch, we go back to Planetary Safety and get Pahlad,” agreed Captain Uisine.
10
Ingray left the bag—the mech—in her room, and went looking for Hevom. She found him in the house’s little garden, sitting on a bench in the shade of the willow tree, staring blankly ahead. The very picture of emotional devastation.
She opened the windowed door, but instead of stepping out onto the mossy stone path she closed the door again and stood there. She told herself that she ought to just walk away. She could go to the kitchen; there would be people there, at least one or two servants who’d known her since she was a child, and she could say that she didn’t want to be alone right now, which she realized, staring out at the garden, was the truth. She could sit out of the way and have a cup of serbat and listen to the staff chat as they worked.
She had been moving more or less constantly, thinking constantly, calculating constantly, from the moment she’d awakened that morning. It was like working a meeting or a campaign event for Nuncle Lak—so many details to worry about and direct, not to mention possible bad outcomes to prevent, and all of it happening right now, no time to actually be worried or afraid about any of it, not till later, and then it was all done.
This wasn’t all done. But looking out at Hevom, sitting beside the tree—maybe it was seeing the tree, when all the morning’s talk of knives and spikes and who might or might not have killed Zat had not brought the image so vividly to her mind as it was now, of Zat motionless against the rovingtree, blood at the corner of her mouth. The seedpod fluttering down and brushing her unmoving face.
Ingray put her hand over her mouth. She didn’t want to think about that. Couldn’t.
Couldn’t stand the thought of Hevom in the garden, in her own house. Well, it was Netano’s house, and if it was politically advantageous to keep Hevom there, Netano would, no matter how many murders he might have committed. Ingray knew that. It had been a fact of her life for years. She had never questioned it.
She didn’t have to go out into the garden. She didn’t want to talk to Hevom. But she wanted to know, needed to know, why he’d done what he’d done. Needed more than guesses and theories. Because she couldn’t push it away anymore, the memory of Excellency Zat, leaning against the rovingtree. Dead.
What if Hevom hadn’t done it? But it had to have been him, no one else could have.
She lowered her hand from her mouth and took a deep breath. Opened the door again, and picked her way along the mossy stone path, and sat beside Hevom on the bench. He looked at her, briefly, and then away again.
“How are you doing, excellency?” she asked. Amazed at how steady her voice was, how pleasant her tone.
He was silent a moment, no change of expression. “As well as can be expected, I suppose.” Silence again. Then, “I couldn’t stand to stay in my room one more minute, but there’s nowhere else I’d want to go. Except home, of course.” He turned, then, to look at Ingray. “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. Everyone here has been very attentive.”