Scout's Progress, page 8
chel'Mara licked his lips. "Uncle. . ."
Aragon reached into his sleeve and produced a card.
"Your identification card. I council you to guard it closely, as it is necessary to present it whenever you wish to travel beyond the land to which you are registered."
The card was extended toward him. chel'Mara raised an arm grown heavy with dread and forced nerveless fingers to grip the slick plastic. He took a rather ragged breath and looked into his delm's face.
"How long?"
Aragon sipped the last of his tea and put the cup down. "Your aunt appears confident that you will be able to master the intricacies of the House's business on Aedryr in five Standard years. I leave it to her judgment, if you require a longer curriculum."
"Five Standards." On a farm? Mastering the mixtures of soils? It was a jest. It must be a—
Aragon rose. chel'Mara rose as well and made his bow, barely attending what he did.
"Until Prime, then," Aragon said, and turned. Halfway down the room, he checked, as if he had bethought himself of something else. chel'Mara sighed, feeling his heart lift, for now, surely, his delm would reveal the jest and—
"I had almost forgot, Vin Sin, the most diverting thing imaginable! Do you care to hear?"
He forced his lips into a smile and bowed lightly. "Why, certainly, sir."
"Ah, good. This planet—Aedryr. Gaming is unlawful by order of the planetary government. Anyone found with so little as a deck of cards in his possession is favored with a Standard of government labor, no appeal. Is it not amusing? Good day to you."
Aragon was gone.
chel'Mara sank down into his chair and closed his eyes, the thin plastic card gripped tight between his fingers.
He had never felt less like laughing.
IT WAS EARLY afternoon in Chonselta.
Aelliana began the walk from the train station to Mizel's Clanhouse with an absurdly light heart. The keys to her ship hung about her neck on a chain provided by Jon dea'Cort.
Using Binjali's comm, she had verified the transfer of ownership, opened a ship's account with the Port Master's Office and transferred her hoarded bonus money from Chonselta Tech's in-house bank.
She had perused Ride the Luck's regular maintenance records, finding also that the ship's berthing at Binjali Repair Shop was paid a full year ahead.
"Shall I refund that amount to Lord chel'Mara?" she had asked Jon dea'Cort doubtfully.
The old Scout snorted. "Ship paid the berthing fee out of its former account. The chel'Mara's arrangement was that he paid in advance without benefit of refund, should he decide to berth elsewhere. Your luck, math teacher."
"I suppose. . ."
She had been introduced to Master dea'Cort's apprentice, a compact and cheerful person who spoke with a marked Outworld accent.
"Trilla, give greeting to Aelliana Caylon, math teacher and owner of Ride the Luck."
"Aelliana Caylon." The bow was crisp and matter-of-fact, augmented by a smile and a flash of bright eyes. "Good lifting."
"Thank you," Aelliana said, returning the bow with relief. No embarrassing respect from Trilla, thank gods; merely a very Scout-like acceptance of what was.
Departing Binjali's, she had not forgotten to stop at the Ormit Fund's Office and make disposition of her quarter-share before catching the ferry to Chonselta.
Now, heading home lighthearted and not a bit weary, she re-assessed her position.
By her reckoning, she had one year to achieve a first class piloting license, learn Terran and garner what money she might. The delm had given her a year, after all, to prove her point regarding the investment of funds. Ran Eld would be held in check for precisely that long, saving Aelliana did nothing to provoke him or to arouse his suspicions.
So be it. She had ten years' practice of appeasing Ran Eld. For Ride the Luck—for freedom—she could endure one year more.
She walked up Raingleam Street, rapt and unseeing, so that her sister's voice gave her a severe start.
"Aelliana!" Sinit caught her sleeve and tugged her hurriedly up-street. "Come in the back way, do. Ran Eld's got his eye on the front door." She giggled. "Primed to ring down a terrifying scold!"
She turned stricken eyes to her sister's face. "What have I done now?"
"Well, you didn't come down to breakfast," Sinit said, turning into the back courtway, Aelliana firmly in tow. "That annoyed him. He sent Voni up to rouse you, but you weren't in your room. That annoyed him even more—you know what Ran Eld is. Then it transpired you weren't in the house at all!" She grinned and paused to work the latch on Mizel's gateway.
"Voni says your bed hadn't been slept in. She says you have a lover." She looked up, eyes brimming laughter. "Ran Eld's not about to stand for that!"
"A lover?" Aelliana stared, stone-still. "Voni thinks I have a lover?"
"Why not?" Sinit asked matter-of-factly. "Go in—quickly! Up the serving stairs and into your room—and mind you remember to come down to Prime!" She gave Aelliana a firm push and turned back to latch the gate.
For one long moment, Aelliana hesitated, heart pounding.
Then she turned and flew into the house, taking the thin back stairs two at a time.
Silent as a Scout, she negotiated the short hallway leading to her rooms, slipped inside and—futile gesture!—locked the door behind her.
She affected not to see the house comm's blinking message-waiting light, opaqued the windows and crossed to the narrow bed.
Fully clothed, she lay upon the coverlet, closed her eyes—and slept.
CHAPTER NINE
. . .by this note convey said land and building to the Liaden Scouts for the purpose of establishing an academy and training center for future Scouts and those whom the Scouts deem it wise to train . . .
—Excerpted from a Contract of Gift
signed by Jeni yos'Phelium,
Ninth Delm of Korval
"WE MISSED YOU AT breakfast, sister." Ran Eld's voice was sweet and mild—a bad sign.
Aelliana set her teacup down and kept her eyes on her plate. They were four at table, the delm having sent word that she would join them later.
"Such an unusual happenstance," Ran Eld pursued. "Our sister was concerned for your health. Imagine her surprise when she entered your room and found you absent, the coverlet smooth atop the bed."
"I am grateful to my sister for her care," Aelliana told her plate, though the words felt like to choke her.
"Very proper, I am sure," Voni snapped from her place up-table. "But that does not address where you were all the night, Aelliana."
"Where would I be?" Aelliana wondered softly.
"Exactly what I wish to know!" her sister said sharply. "Really, Aelliana, I suppose you will deny that your bed had not been slept in!"
"Not at all. I—" she focused on a grayish square of vegetable pudding. "I was up much of the night, considering the wisest investment of my quarter-share. This morning I placed the funds as seemed best." She cleared her throat and reached for the teacup. "I did not wish to be behindhand in obeying the Delm's Word."
There was a charged pause, before Ran Eld's voice, very dry: "Commendable."
"Well, I think it is commendable," Sinit announced from her seat at the foot of the board. "Truly, Ran Eld, you make it seem a crime to heed the delm's wishes! The Code tells us plainly—"
"Thank you, little sister. I believe my comprehension of Code may be—somewhat—superior to your own."
"Oh, then you know you're making a stupid twitter over none of your concern," Sinit cried in a tone of broad enlightenment. "I, for one, am greatly relieved. You mustn't mind them, Aelliana—Ran Eld's in a temper and Voni's snipe-ish because Lady pel'Rula found fault with her dress."
"You were listening at the door!" Voni's voice shook in outrage. "I shall tell mother. Of all—"
Through the shield of her hair, Aelliana saw Sinit smile.
"Lady pel'Rula said Voni's dress was immodest, and not at all what one looked for in a lady of impeccable manner." The smile broadened to a grin. "It was, too."
"What do you know of the matter?" Voni snarled. "That design was copied from a gown created for yos'Galan! If Lady pel'Rula is so provincial that she turns her face from a look sanctioned by Korval—"
"Then she's well-rid of," Sinit suggested, eyes wide.
Voni frowned and extended a graceful hand for her wine glass. "Naturally not. Mother and I are to call upon Her Ladyship tomorrow after luncheon."
"And you'll wear a less dashing dress, won't you, Voni?"
Aelliana saw Voni's fingers tighten on the stem of her glass, knuckles paling. She answered in a voice rigid with fury.
"You need not concern yourself with my wardrobe, Sinit. I shall consider it an impertinence if you continue."
"Sinit, let be," Aelliana whispered urgently.
"Excellent advice." Ran Eld said, voice cloying as sugared tea. "How good of you to overwatch your sister, Aelliana, and drop these little hints in her ear. Allow me to perform the same service on behalf of yourself."
Aelliana reached for her teacup. It was empty. She swallowed hard in a dry throat and folded her hands onto her lap, eyes on her untasted dinner.
"Certainly," she said, hearing her voice tremble. "I welcome instruction from one so much my elder, and who is accustomed to going about in the world."
"Yes, you're not much used to the world, are you?" Ran Eld murmured, swirling his wine. "One tends to forget just how ill-suited you are to caring for even so small a portion of the clan's melant'i. But, there. If those who are wiser do not pause to instruct their inferiors, the wiser must share in the fault, when the inevitable disgrace occurs." He sipped, waiting.
Aelliana clenched her hands about each other. "As you say," she whispered.
Voni giggled and helped herself to another spoonful of baked melon.
"Precisely," Ran Eld said, lazily. "No, Sinit, don't speak, I pray you. Aelliana and I have quite agreed that she welcomes my tuition." He finished off his wine and set the glass aside, pushed plates, bowls and sauce-thimbles back and folded his arms atop the cloth.
"Look at me," he murmured, leaning forward.
Teeth-grit, she raised her head, met his eyes with a flinch.
"So." He smiled, not pleasantly. "Scouts, Aelliana."
She stared at him, speechless, saw his mouth tighten with impatience and blurted, "I teach Scouts."
"Precisely," he purred, mouth easing with satisfaction. "You teach Scouts, for which you receive a wage. A regrettable necessity. However, necessity ends with the ending of the school-day. There is no need for—and, indeed, very good reason to refrain from—association—with Scouts."
"Scouts are not our kind," Voni elucidated, perhaps for Sinit's benefit. "Scouts, pilots, mechanics—it all comes down to bad manners, oily fingers and dirty faces. I hope no one of Mizel is so foolish as to credit such disreputable persons with heroism and vast knowledge. Heroism is a great piece of nonsense. I infinitely prefer good manners."
A flicker of mind pictures: Jon dea'Cort tidily wiping his broad hands on a red rag; Rema's spotless leathers and courteous concern; Var Mon's scrubbed-til-it-shone, mischievous boy-face. . .
"I—"
Ran Eld raised a hand and leaned closer across the table, eyes leveled like lasers.
"Scouts are not fit companions for one of Mizel. For anyone of Mizel," he said, spacing his words as if her ears were defective—or her wits. "Do you understand me, Aelliana?"
Bow the head, she told herself, desperately. Be meek. Remember. Remember your ship.
"I understand you," she whispered, heartbeat pounding in her temples.
"Well, what have we here, a tableau?" Birin Caylon stood in the doorway. She raised a hand on which Mizel's Clan Ring gleamed and stabbed a finger toward her son.
"Ran Eld is the insatiable cat about to eat the unfortunate mouse, portrayed by Aelliana—so!" She dropped her hand and came into the room. "Did I guess correctly?"
Ran Eld laughed and eased back into his chair. "Correct as always, Mother!"
"Indeed, ma'am," Voni ventured, rising to hold the delm's chair, "we were merely striving to show Aelliana and Sinit the unsuitability of associating with Scouts and other such persons."
"A cup of wine, Ran Eld, if you please—and a saucer of soup, if any remains."
Provided with these, she tasted her wine before turning her attention to her middle daughter, who sat yet in her pose of mouse-about-to-be-devoured. Birin Caylon felt a stir of compassion. The child looked unwell, her thin face was pinched and there were great bruised circles under her misty eyes.
Abruptly, Birin wondered if a particular Scout might be the subject of this lesson in appropriate behavior. She had a spoonful of soup. Really, she thought, Ran Eld is too hard on the girl.
"No doubt but that Scouts are odd-tempered," she said, after another spoon of soup. "I recall your father, Aelliana. What that man was for questions! He would babble on concerning a certain mix of tea, or the practice of drinking morning-wine only in the morning, or whether cats told jokes. He found the most mundane affairs cause for high amusement. Very nearly he drove me to distraction—and he merely trained at Academy and not a true Scout at all!" She sighed.
"Your grandmother, who was of course delm at that time, found him unexceptional. For his part, he showed her great deference and spoke highly in her praise, so he was not lost to proper feeling at all, as some claim of Scouts."
"And yet you do not deny that he, as all Scouts, was odd in his manner," Ran Eld said.
"No," said Birin, frowning after her thoughts. "No, my son, I cannot deny that he was considerably out of the common way. At the time, I suspected him of laughing at me. However, I have come to see that much of his oddness must be laid to his training." She paused.
"It is necessary for those who would take up the chancy duties Scouts claim for themselves to undergo rigorous and specialized education, the better to survive in the wide universe. It is to be regretted that an effect of attaining excellence in this curriculum must also make one—different.
"I have heard it said that Scouts are other than Liaden—that of course is nonsense. What I believe is that Scouts are burdened with an understanding that takes into account not only Liad, but the universe entire." She reached for her wine. "I believe such understanding sets them apart forever from those who look no further than Liad."
"Then you credit Scouts with heroism, do you, ma'am?" Sinit's voice carried clear amusement and Birin turned to frown at her.
"I credit Scouts with other-ness," she said sternly, "and perhaps with loneliness. It is possible that there is something to be learned from them, should one have the ability to grasp it. Not all do—which is no shame. Nor is there shame in finding that one has that certain ability." She moved her gaze to Ran Eld, sitting attentive beside her.
"I find no disgrace in the companionship of Scouts."
He inclined his head politely. Satisfied, Birin returned to her soup.
The silence was broken by the scrape of a chair. Aelliana rose and made her bow.
"If you please, ma'am. I have student work to review."
Birin waved a hand. "Certainly. Good evening, daughter."
"Good evening," the girl whispered and pushed her chair to, leaving a full plate of food and an empty teacup behind.
At the door of the dining hall, she paused and spun, one hand outflung. The silver ring that had belonged to her grandmother caught the light; lost it.
"Please, ma'am," she said breathlessly. "What came of him?"
Birin glanced up with a frown. "Of whom?"
"My—my father."
"Child, however should I know what came of him? I last saw him twenty-seven years ago, when we signed the completion of contract."
"Oh." Her shoulders drooped inside the cocoon of her shirt. "Of course. Good evening, ma'am."
"Good evening, Aelliana," Ran Eld called dulcetly, but the doorway was empty.
"HE DID WHAT?" Var Mon stared at his cha'leket in patent disbelief. "Have you gone mad?"
"No, but my Lord chel'Mara doubtless has!" Lyn Den crowed. He flung himself into his cha'leket's arms and kissed his cheek. "Come and rejoice, darling, I needn't join the Terran mercenaries, after all!"
"As if they'd have you," Var Mon retorted grumpily, "or as if you'd live a day in battle, if they did. And the office of informing your father doubtless falling to myself. Lyn Den, are you certain it was Vin Sin chel'Mara?"
