“Of course, miss,” said one servant, without even blinking, and between the two of them they slid the limp, resistless Danach out of the back of the groundcar and carried him into the house.
“Miss Aughskold!” said the news mech, as Ingray followed them. “Can you explain your involvement in the return of Pahlad Budrakim from Compassionate Removal? What is eir involvement in the murder of the Omkem Excellency Zat? Why are the Geck involving themselves in this? And what about the Budrakim vestiges? And how in the world did you come to be covered with so much mud?”
Ingray smiled as she walked past. “I’m so sorry. It’s been an eventful night and I’m a bit worried about my brother just now. Perhaps we can talk later.”
“What do you take me for?” asked the news mech. “This isn’t the first time Danach Aughskold has been carried home drunk. He’ll be fine once he gets past the hangover. And it’s you I want to talk to, not him. Did you know who Pahlad Budrakim was when you brought em to Hwae? Do you think it’s true that the prolocutor lied to the Magistracy Committee about his family vestiges being stolen? Do you think Pahlad is right when e says the Rejection of Further Obligations in the System Lareum is a forgery? Could Pahlad have stolen the real one emself?”
“I’ll be happy to talk to you in the morning,” Ingray promised as she reached the door of the house.
“Oh, right, after the big services get here,” complained the mech. Not moving from its spot—it couldn’t legally come any closer to the door, or Ingray, without an explicit invitation. “Come on, Ingray, a little help for the local news service.”
“In the morning!” She stepped inside and the door closed behind her.
Inside, in the dim, nighttime entrance hall light, she found Danach, uncharacteristically submissive-looking, standing in front of Nuncle Lak, who sat on the bench beside the stairs. “Ingray,” Nuncle Lak said. “I got in less than five minutes ago, and I’ve been wondering where you were. Didn’t I ask you to keep me informed? And how did you come to be covered with so much mud?”
“That’s my fault, Nuncle,” said Danach.
“Ascended saints,” replied Nuncle Lak with mock surprise. “Danach admitting responsibility. It really is true what they say, anything can happen and there’s no end to surprises in this life.” E turned to Ingray again. “Not that I’m letting you off the hook. I did ask you to keep me informed.”
“I’m sorry, Nuncle.”
“Well, don’t be too sorry,” said Nuncle Lak with a sigh. “While you were gone, I threw you to the District Voice. I didn’t warn you, I knew you’d be expecting it.”
“Yes, I noticed,” said Ingray, and Nuncle Lak laughed. “I wasn’t surprised.” There was no rancor in her saying it. “In fact, that’s why I went after Danach. When I guessed where he’d gone, I knew someone had to bring him back. I didn’t bother you, I knew you were probably busy with everything else.”
“And where,” Nuncle Lak asked, “had Danach gone?” E turned to Danach expectantly.
Ingray couldn’t see Danach’s face, but she could tell by the sullen hunch of his shoulders that he didn’t want to answer. But he did. “I went to Eswae.” And stopped there.
“And why, dear nephew, did you go to Eswae? I am having difficulty imagining any particularly good reasons for such a thing.”
Danach made a resentful, disgusted noise. “I recognized Pahlad when Ingray brought em home. When I confronted em, e told me that the Budrakim vestiges were in Eswae Parkland. I thought I could at least try to find them before it got out. I figured it might never get out; the prolocutor would do everything in his power to prevent it.” He gave a sort of abbreviated shrug. “There was a chance I might find them, anyway. And then we’d have had that over the Budrakims.”
Nuncle Lak just looked at him in silence. After a few moments Danach said, “If I’d stopped to talk to you or Ingray I’d have known it was a bad idea.” Still Nuncle Lak was silent. Danach continued, voice disgusted. “I’ve already thanked Ingray for getting me out of it, what else do you want?”
“Are you out of it?” asked Nuncle Lak.
“He was upset about Excellency Zat,” said Ingray. “He got drunk. He doesn’t remember exactly what he was thinking when he rented the excavation mech. I guessed where he’d gone, from something he’d said earlier in the day, and I went out to stop him from making an absolute fool of himself. He’s going to pay for the damage.”
“The damage to …?” prompted Nuncle Lak.
“I crashed the mech before I ever got to the parkland,” admitted Danach. “The thing was a beast to pilot.”
“You know there are people who work piloting construction mechs their whole lives,” Nuncle Lak pointed out. “They aren’t toys. It takes training and practice, it’s not just something you can pick up and do on the spur of the moment if you’ve never done it before.” Silence. “You know what I’m about to say.”
Danach replied, still sullen, “Things would go better for me, now and in the future, if I treated my sister as an ally instead of an adversary.”
“Netano’s favorite thing,” said Nuncle Lak, “is for one of you children to present her with a surprise. Some plot even she didn’t know you were working on. She’s actively encouraged it, and it’s always been the most reliable way for you to impress her. I’ll give you credit for that, Danach, you’ve always been eager to impress your mother. And being able to turn the Budrakim vestiges over to her would no doubt have impressed her quite a lot. Probably even enough to justify this rather uncharacteristically harebrained scheme of yours. We won’t mention the attraction of a chance to do your sister one better in a scheme of her own that you’d discovered. But …” E looked expectantly at Danach.
Danach sighed. “I should have made sure I had accurate intelligence before I moved. And I’d have had more accurate intelligence if I’d talked to Ingray. And if I hadn’t tried to blackmail her and Pahlad when they arrived. And …” He looked up, as though he’d noticed something interesting painted on the ceiling. “It won’t help me to be so worried that Ingray might outdo me that I end up hurting myself, not only now but in the future.”
Astonished, Ingray suppressed a frown and brought her teeth firmly together so that she would not make any noise of surprise. That had sounded like Danach reciting words he’d heard over and over again.
“You can manage to be polite and even charming with people you don’t like,” said Nuncle Lak. “You’re very good at it. And you’re entirely capable of being diplomatic when it’s called for, when it’s not your sister we’re talking about. I know family gets under your skin—ascended saints, do I know. And I know that by encouraging you children to compete for her approval, your mother has to some extent set you up for this. But you need to be smarter than this, Danach. I know you are smarter than this.”