But what was Danach doing? “The news services haven’t reported Pahlad’s presence here, have they? You said they didn’t know yet. So it’s not like anyone but us and maybe a few guards know what e said about putting the vestiges in the parkland.” No. Wait. Just the night before last Pahlad had told Danach that the Budrakim vestiges were hidden in Eswae Parkland. And he hadn’t heard Pahlad say that it had been a lie.
Stop and think. Nuncle Lak’s constant advice. Which she didn’t take as often as she should. What would happen if the news services found this? If Ingray right now sent Danach a message wondering (fretfully, anxiously?) where he was because they needed him at home, so it was obvious she didn’t know what he was doing, and had nothing to do with whatever his project was?
It would depend. It would depend on what the news services knew. And whether Ethiat Budrakim wanted to keep any of it quiet. Danach digging in the parkland for stolen vestiges would look bad for Netano and therefore good for the prolocutor—but those vestiges were Budrakim vestiges, and Netano wouldn’t hesitate to point that out, or bring Pahlad’s story to the news services if she could.
But Pahlad might well be easy to discredit. E was a convict, here illegally, and had said straight out that the Rejection of Further Obligations in the System Lareum was a fake. Whether it was true or not, no Hwaean would like hearing that. Ingray didn’t herself. She suspected it was probably true, and she was having trouble believing it.
None of that would matter much to Netano, if she was willing to throw Danach out the airlock.
Netano would have to start over with another potential heir. Ingray herself was already too involved in this, and besides she’d never stood a chance at being Netano in the first place. Had already been planning to walk away from the household, so that was all right.
If Ingray did nothing, she wouldn’t be any better off. But she wouldn’t be any worse off, and at least she’d have seen Danach humiliated. And Taucris was right; he did deserve it.
Taucris was still sitting beside her. Silent. Patient. Ingray remembered Taucris confiding in her. Taucris worrying about whether Ingray had had a break, and something to eat. Taucris leaning close, her hair brushing her cheek, fetching Tic had said, and, yes. I never imagined he’d throw his own child into Compassionate Removal to keep a political advantage, Taucris had just said, disapprovingly. And of Danach, He’s an ass and totally deserves it, but he is your brother. Taucris had quite possibly risked her job—a job that was important to her, that she’d wanted badly for much of her life—giving Ingray this information. Which Ingray could use to try to mitigate whatever trouble Danach was getting himself into, or to hurt him. Taucris had said as much. Nana may not be a politician, but I know how these things work.
She was still looking away from Ingray, her head turned toward the tumble of leaves and white flowers across the small courtyard. Giving Ingray room to think. And suddenly it mattered very much to Ingray how Taucris would look at her, when she turned to face her again.
“Fucking ascended saints,” Ingray said, vehemently. But there wasn’t any other choice she could make, not really. She wanted to kick something, but her feet were bare and there was nothing nearby but the bench, and the stone walls of the court. “I’m going to have to go try to get him out of this somehow, aren’t I.”
By the time Ingray reached Eswae it was dark, a few flutterglows flickering red and yellow in the even darker shadows of the hostelry where Danach had taken a room. It wasn’t the sort of place that had an actual human being working there—just a panel at the end of the long building, with an interface you could use to pay for a bed. Though it wasn’t that late, the street was empty. A hundred meters or so off, light spilled into the street from a food shop, a place that sold ready-made meals to tourists. She’d looked in there before she’d come to the hostelry—she could imagine Danach there much more easily than she could believe he would spend any time at all in the tiny little compartments the hostelry likely offered.
She’d knocked on the door of his compartment and gotten no response. She could go back to the eatery and ask if anyone there had seen Danach. But if they had, what good would that do? She might learn what he’d eaten for supper that day but likely not much more. And besides, she knew where he’d gone. Asking would just waste time.
She got back in the groundcar and told it to take her to the parkland.
“Eswae Parkland is closed from one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise,” said the car as Ingray settled into the seat.
“I know,” she said. “I’m looking for someone. I just want to go slowly along the road and see if I can find them.”
“Do you require the assistance of Planetary Safety?” asked the car.
“No,” said Ingray. “It’s not that kind of thing.” Yet.
The groundcar lurched into motion. Within a few minutes the only light was the groundcar’s headlights. More flutterglows floated and flickered under the trees on either side of the road. The empty road—all the hikers and travelers were back at the town by now, probably having a nice warm supper in the bright and cheerful eatery Ingray had left behind her. If Ingray had stopped in there, to ask after Danach and maybe have some serbat, she would be there now. Surrounded by light and people. Distracted from her own thoughts. Tic had said—or his mech that he was using to pretend he was the Geck ambassador had said—that he would rather stay at Arsamol Planetary Safety with Pahlad. So she had taken the trip alone, and her thoughts had increasingly, disturbingly, centered on the memory of Excellency Zat on the hilltop. Which she needed to not think about right now, because she had to find Danach, and it was so dark. If he’d taken a different way she’d never be able to find him.
He hadn’t taken a different way. Just before the bridge over the Iogh River the groundcar’s lights brushed the back of some kind of large construction mech that had slid off the road and into the edge of the trees. “Stop,” said Ingray, and got out.