Fallen From Stars - THE VILLA (Part One)
(Chapter 29, Part 1)
We did the best we could, to be careful. Kymassi was a smaller town than Kandiers town, but big enough, and it wrapped around the bay. Gnoza ordered us to stay inside the house, and not show our faces to anyone there, and we were contented for the time.
The matter of Constans having been walking about Kymassi for days, however, concerned her.
“Who’s seen you?”
“Who knows? Everyone. I didn’t expect any of Herme Scyros’s agents to be here, nor any militia. This, the islands, after all,” he said as she gave him a look. “I know a little about them, and I know we—the militia—seldom posts them anywhere but Zacynthos.”
“She’s a bit of a missing item, Mist’ Sarkis. You thought the mainland wouldn’t want her anymore?”
“I thought she was drowned, and I didn’t think they’d seek me here.”
“Well, they are. Lady Goddess, man—haven’t you been on the run before?”
“Me? I never got the chance,” he said mildly. “I got arrested and conscripted.”
“You must tell me this story sometime, if our oracular Miss Hijong hasn’t already dreamed it for us. What have you seen?”
“Nothing that will make you happy, Miss,” he said.
“No surprise.” We were dividing a shepherd’s pie full of mutton and olives and savory for supper, and she stabbed it with irritation. “Young man, nothing has made me happy this week. Keep talking.”
He handed her a plate. “There’s a big house at the other end, on a headland. When I landed here, I took a stroll through the town, looking for Hijong.”
“And we were still in Kandiers town.” I shook my head. “I wish I knew how this worked.”
“No matter,” he said. “It doesn’t matter, does it?”
“It does not,” the sword master snapped.
“It’s a mouldy old house, used to belong to some poorish aristoi family that died out. Now it’s rented out sometimes, with a caretaker living on the grounds. Sometimes it isn’t rented out, I’ve learned, but stands cold and empty. I was walking that night: there were lights on in it.”
“Biggest house in the town?” I asked.
“Quite.”
“A woman like the one you describe would stay in nothing less, “ Gnoza growled. “Certainly not a taverno or a rooming house.”
“Well, I didn’t pay any mind to that, did I? What had this house to do with me? So I sat on the wharf for a week, waiting for every boat that came in to see if you were on it.”
“Every boat?”
“So much as a rowboat, there I was,” he said, solemn.
I couldn’t help but say, “You can be charming, Armsman.”
“You as well, Crewwoman.”
“You still don’t believe in that word, do you?”
“Can we move on?” the swordmaster demanded.
He shrugged. “Two days ago, I was waiting at the wharf for you when a floatplane appeared.”
“What color?”
“It was silver.”
“And you didn’t think—” I began.
“Not at the first moment. I’ve seen more than one floatplane in my life, and more than one silver one. It was such a surprise at first. ”
“But you think it was them?”
“Oh, I’m sure it’s them.—Everyone in the town came running out: I don’t know when the last time they must have seen a plane was. Years, maybe. I felt quite slack-jawed myself, as unexpected as it was. It landed and taxied just off the headland. A boat came from shore, so I settled myself out of sight under a tree and watched. Two men rowed out, and five people came off. The pilot, I imagine, and four women.”
“Sure?”
“I know a woman even half a kilometer away, Hijong—even if they don’t dress like them. Two of them were handed on to the shore by men waiting. Two of them struggled with some bags.”
“Servants, of course,” Miss Trevion said.
Constans glanced at the girls. “Yes. Once I wrapped my mind around that, I knew what you’d said in the dream was true for that part. Miss Scyros and her daughter are in that house, and there were men there already.”
“It wasn’t Orestos,” I said.
“Men of his,” Constans said. “At the very least, they follow his trade for certain.”
“Oh?”
“An hour or so after they went ashore, the men came out with a group of women and rowed out twice with a few of them each time, then the plane took off and headed south-east.”
“Zacynthos, I suppose,” Gnoza said. “Everyone they’ve press-ganged on Kandiers in the past couple of weeks. This Lysander Anthept’s licensed their operation. Where else would they take them?”
“I agree,” he said.
“How many?”
“Seven or eight. Maybe nine, at the outside. Hard to say, they were all clustered together.”
Her face was angry. “I hate a press-ganger almost as much as I hate a labor-broker.”
“What can you do?”
She barked a laugh. “Your Hijong here just shot one dead.”
He looked at me, startled. “Hijong!”
“Yes, I did,” I said, feeling ill again, in my mind seeing Iristelo’s eyes as he realized what I’d done.
“They won’t like that.”
“I didn’t care. I didn’t want to kill him, but I didn’t see anything else I could do. Orestos was trying to rip off my clothes. They were all of them going to rape all three of us. What would you have me do, Constans?”
“They’ll kill you for that, for sure, if they get hold of you. No one will buy the contract of a murderess, and they have to tell the buyer, or it’s fraud. They’ll be out for blood.” He rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know. No, you shouldn’t just…” He stopped, at a loss for words, then finished lamely, “But I’ve never heard of a woman killing a press-ganger.”
“You have now.”
“I don’t suppose they’d boast of getting murdered,” he said. He focused on the important part, finally: “He tried—did he hurt you?”
“Hurt? I’ve been hurt a lot since I got to your world. Groped. Kicked, slapped, tied up, chased, slammed against things. Punched in the stomach. Kept in closets on spaceships. Made to take care of their horses, cook for the bastards.” I felt myself getting red. I stood up; I sat down. “I’ve had to go through a lot on this hell planet, and I don’t see it getting better, do you?”
“I…am sorry.”
“But if you’re asking me if he raped me: no.”
“Thank the Lady,” he murmured.
“Maybe we can decide what to do,” Trevion suggested, stabbing another piece of mutton with her knife-tip. “It’s more to the point.”
“We have to get out of their reach,” he said, looking at me, brow furrowed.
“Is that so easy? How far can we sail?” I asked. “Is there any part of the world they won’t pursue me?”
“Excellent question. You’re militia, Mist’ Sarkis—or former. How far will they pursue you?”
“I don’t know. I’ve seen a deserter brought in and caned. I’ve heard of them being shot. The lad I saw beaten was half-dead out in the desert during recruit school. He thought he could run. He was mostly dead when they got done with him. I suppose he must be dead now, it’s been three years. How long will they chase me? A long time, I suppose, seeing as I know you. Island to island, or beyond.”
“Why did you run?” I asked. “Since you know better?”
He smiled wistfully. “Because.”
I looked at my plate on my lap, prodded the crust with the fork. “How far can we go?”
“There’s twice as much of the islands ahead of us as there is behind us,” he said. “Maybe more. The government doesn’t publish accurate maps of it. Then there’s a wide bit of ocean, and the other shore. There’s plenty more south, and the north shore is long, long, long. There’s a lot of places we can go—if we shake them.”
I imagined the ice-choked narrow seas at home, the black mountains. The cold winds off the glaciers. Here the sea would be blue and warm.
He touched my head, as if it were a cask of jewels. “What about your ansible? If you had it, could you control what you do, stay a step ahead of them?”
I scoffed. “Maybe? Who knows? If I can’t, how long do you want me to run? The rest of my life, suckling around like a little crab in the bottom of a bucket with a big crab after me? I can’t get off this planet.”
“If you knew where they were, you could avoid them.”
“And if not, I’m as much a prisoner then as if I’m in a closet, or enslaved. Will you run with me?”
“Hijong, stop shouting,” Gnoza said. “I don’t want to have to kill a man myself this evening.”
I stared at her, looked at Psamathe.
“Miss’s voice is displeased,” she said carefully.
“Psamathe, you can tell me I’m yelling.”
“No she can’t, but I am.” Gnoza put her plate on the table. “Tomorrow we’ll figure out how to get out of this town quietly, if such a thing is possible.”