Provenance

  “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.”

  Danach said nothing.

  “Well,” said Nuncle Lak. “I’ll be honest, nephew of mine, if Ingray had decided to leave you to your fate tonight, I wouldn’t have blamed her. And no, don’t tell me what your mother would or wouldn’t have done in that case, this is not the time to be playing games like that. Though I’m well aware you’re not the only child of my sister’s to be playing games right now. I’ve been trying to understand what’s been happening, and I’ve come to some conclusions. Ingray, we’ve already talked about exactly why you went to Tyr Siilas. I think you need to share that information with your brother.”

  Ingray took a breath. Couldn’t bring herself to speak. But if Nuncle Lak wanted Danach to know, Danach would know, whatever Ingray said or didn’t say now. “I went to Gold Orchid to ask them to bring Pahlad back from Compassionate Removal so I could ask em where e’d hidden the Budrakim vestiges.” Danach didn’t say anything, didn’t visibly react.

  “And Gold Orchid obliged you.” Nuncle Lak’s voice was unbelievably calm, as though e were talking about a catering order, or the wording of an announcement to the news services. “How much did you pay them?”

  Ingray, acutely aware of Danach standing beside her hearing her confess, wished she could be anywhere but here. Out in the woods in the mud, or walking miserable through town in the rain. Better yet, somewhere nicer, where she was safe and the people around her didn’t demand so much of her. Still aboard Captain Uisine’s ship, maybe. She named the sum.

  “That’s what I thought,” said Nuncle Lak, then. “If you’d had a little more information you’d have realized that was far, far too small a price for what you were asking. And all of this, including what I’m about to say next, does not ever go beyond the three of us.” E looked at Danach, who made an indignant noise. “Ever. Ingray is not the first Aughskold to ask Gold Orchid to bring someone out of Compassionate Removal. They—and every other broker approached—refused. They explained their refusal—and they never explain their refusals—by saying that they would never, under any circumstances, undertake such a commission, which would not only involve kidnapping but also would very directly undermine law enforcement in another polity.”

  “But who …” began Danach. “Why would …”

  Nuncle Lak cut him off. “Your grandmother was a piece of work. More than that I will only say to Netano.” By that e meant, e wouldn’t answer Danach’s questions until Danach himself was Netano. “The price Ingray offered is only a small fraction of what Gold Orchid refused on that occasion. What changed?” Silence. “And I can’t help but wonder if Pahlad is acting on Tyr instructions.”

  “E was in a suspension pod when I picked em up,” said Ingray. But then she remembered Pahlad saying I think I’d like to visit the Incomers Office. “But the captain wouldn’t let me take em on the ship without em saying e wanted to go, so we thawed em out. And e acted like e didn’t know who I was, and said e wasn’t Pahlad, and went to the Tyr Siilas Incomers Office. E didn’t want to come to Hwae, I had to find em and convince em to come with me.”

  “Maybe it wasn’t you who convinced em,” suggested Danach. “It suited someone for Pahlad to come back.”

  “It suited Tyr for Pahlad to come back,” corrected Nuncle Lak. “And Tyr may have been able to compel Pahlad to come back to Hwae, but now that e’s here e has nothing to lose and might as well do as e likes. Of course, the Tyr Executory isn’t stupid and likely knew what e would do, once e got here, whatever instructions they may have given em.”

  “It suited Tyr to embarrass Prolocutor
Budrakim, then,” said Ingray. “But I don’t see how what Pahlad is doing helps Tyr at all.”

  “I can’t help but notice,” said Nuncle Lak, “that the prolocutor has recently spoken in favor of seriously considering the Omkem Federacy’s request that we allow their military through our gates, so they can reestablish contact with Byeit.”

  “Why would Tyr care about Omkem’s access to Byeit?” asked Danach.

  “We’re not just one gate away from Byeit,” Ingray said. “We’re also only one gate away from Tyr.”

  “A lot of traffic goes through Tyr,” agreed Nuncle Lak. “A lot of information, and a lot of money. I don’t think I’d like to try their defenses, but perhaps the Federacy would disagree. Perhaps they’re not interested in Byeit. Or, not only interested in Byeit. Perhaps they would like to have a foothold here, too, especially now they’re cut off from the system that used to be their easiest access to Tyr. And that thought has occurred to plenty of people right here. I’m sure the possibility has also occurred to the Tyr Executory.”

  “But surely,” protested Ingray, “if that’s their plan, Prolocutor Budrakim wouldn’t take part in such a thing.” And then, at a thought, “If he knew.”

  “He’d be stupid not to know,” asserted Danach.

  “You yourself didn’t know, a moment ago,” reproved Nuncle Lak. “But I imagine he does know, or at least suspects what the Omkem Federacy’s aim is in this. Ethiat Budrakim is many things, but he is not stupid and he is not a traitor. He probably thinks it doesn’t matter much to Hwae who’s controlling the Tyr Executory, but it might be useful if whoever it was owed Ethiat Budrakim favors for helping put them in charge. And besides, I’m sure he thinks he can take Omkem money and wiggle out of any obligations they think they’ve put on him. Your mother thought the same, despite my advice otherwise. Though it’s true Excellency Zat didn’t care at all about whether Federacy military had access to Hwae. If anything, she was against it, or so Netano told me.”

  “Hevom cared,” said Ingray. “Hevom killed Zat.”

  “And the ambassador is so eager to get him back,” agreed Nuncle Lak. “And, coincidentally, so eager to have Pahlad stand trial in the Federacy, for a murder committed on Hwae. Perhaps as a favor to Ethiat Budrakim. Or perhaps they just see an extra opportunity to take offense when their demands are refused.”

  “They want an excuse for military action against Hwae,” guessed Ingray. It seemed ridiculous. Unreal.

  Nuncle Lak gestured agreement. “The Geck have interfered, at least as far as Pahlad is concerned. I imagine the committee will rule that Pahlad is Geck and send em up to the ship. From what I can tell, they don’t have much choice about it. What that will mean for Pahlad, I have no idea. E seems entirely unworried at the prospect. But then, as I said, e has nothing left to lose.”

  “And Excellency Hevom?” asked Ingray.

  “I doubt we’re the only people to think this is meant to be a pretext for Omkem aggression. It’s possible the committee will release Hevom to the Chancery, on the condition that Hevom boards the first ship leaving for the Federacy and never enters Hwae space again. Or it’s possible the committee will be angered by the rather insulting and arrogant demeanor of the Omkem ambassador and insist Hevom face the magistracy here. Either way, we’re likely to have some sort of decision in the morning. Or, I should say, in just a few hours.”

  “Infernal powers!” swore Danach. “I didn’t think any committee could come to a decision in less than a few weeks.”

  Nuncle Lak ignored him. “This is why I gave what I did to the District Voice tonight. We’ll stay with the story that Ingray found Pahlad on Tyr Siilas and didn’t know who e was. She felt sorry for em and brought em home. It’s the sort of thing she’d do, we all know that, and moreover it’s the sort of generosity to fellow Hwaeans that her mother has instilled in her. Everything else has been a complete surprise.” E looked at Ingray. “So you know how to play this, in the morning. Because you’re going to be there when Pahlad leaves Planetary Safety. It will draw attention away from this house, and Hevom’s own departure—either for the Omkem Chancery on the station, or a cell in Planetary Safety. And besides, the Geck ambassador has repeatedly insisted on it.”

  In a whole night of bizarre events, this was, for Ingray, the most puzzlingly unreal. “Repeatedly?”

  “The ambassador,” said Nuncle Lak, very calmly and straightforwardly, as though what e was saying made any sense, “somehow got past the guards and into Pahlad’s cell. She refuses to leave em. She’s been there all night.”

  “All night?” asked Ingray, surprised that she was actually able to speak aloud, with such a steady voice. “How strange.” Danach, beside her, said nothing. And really, what was there for him to say? That’s impossible, the ambassador just tried to strangle me outside Eswae Parkland a few hours ago to stop me from murdering Ingray?

  Tic had been with Pahlad all night.

  It really had been the ambassador who had assaulted Danach. And who had doubtless followed them back home, and doubtless realized that Tic was here, or his mech was, and what he was up to. What would happen in the morning when the ambassador appeared at Planetary Safety and revealed their fraud?

  “The whole thing is strange,” Nuncle Lak was saying. “And you can see why this is not the time for petty squabbles between the two of you.”

  “Yes, Nuncle,” said Danach. To all appearances submissive, his voice obedient, but Ingray knew that no matter how repentant he seemed right now, he’d be searching for some way to turn what he’d just learned to his advantage. He didn’t know about Tic’s spider mechs, but he had heard Ingray call out Tic? when the mech had first spoken. It wouldn’t take him long to put the two things together. Maybe he already had.

  And Ingray had no choice but to say, herself, “Yes, Nuncle.”

  At Planetary Safety, Deputy Chief Veret offered Ingray serbat and a seat in eir office—very much like Taucris’s, only larger, with more, and more comfortable, chairs for visitors. “When Taucris gets here,” the deputy chief said, handing Ingray her cup of serbat, and then sitting emself, “I’ll have her bring in some breakfast for you.” For some reason, e said it just a bit stiffly, as though e was trying to conceal anger or discomfort.

  “Have you been here all night?” Ingray asked. She herself had at least been able to doze in the groundcar to and from Eswae.

  “Yes,” said the deputy chief. E did not pour any serbat for emself. “But I wouldn’t have gotten much sleep last night anyway.”

  For a moment Ingray was puzzled. But of course, judging by eir accent Deputy Chief Veret was from Lim. And now she noticed, on the deputy chief’s desk, the small square plain black lacquer tray that held, in a tumbled pile, a string of dark blue, gold-veined beads. Everyone knew the Hatli had some odd religious practices, and regular days throughout the year when they were obliged to fast, or sit up all night praying, or some other odd thing. And there were perfectly good foods the Hatli wouldn’t eat.

  She’d known the deputy chief was from Lim, and known that had probably meant e was Hatli, even before Danach had said it the morning before. But she hadn’t thought that someone well-educated enough to take a job like this, let alone to speak Yiir as well as e had the other day, would still believe eir ancestors required such observances.

  “Don’t get the wrong idea about last night,” said Deputy Chief Veret into her exhausted silence. “I have never been a supporter of your mother’s. Not that it does me any good to say so in this district. Anyone else who could realistically challenge Netano Aughskold would almost certainly hold positions just as repugnant to me, and anyway I am so much among the minority here I might as well not vote, for all the good it does.”

  Ingray didn’t know what to say to that, so she said nothing.

  “I’m used to it by now,” e continued. “Mostly. Every now and then something comes up that I can’t ignore. Every now and then someone says it out loud—You speak so well, Deputy Chief! But surely you’re
too educated to be like all those other Hatli, Deputy Chief!—instead of just thinking it. Yes, I know you thought it just now.”

  Ingray started to protest. But realized that no matter what she said, she would only make things worse.

  The deputy chief gave a sardonic smile. “It’s usually pretty obvious. And every now and then politics dictates how I handle a case. Not just the planetary chiefs telling me who to arrest or what to say to the news services, not just a litigation committee ordering me to release people I believe should never be released, no, that’s part of the job. They’re my bosses. Maybe my judgment is wrong, and that’s why we have litigation to begin with. But things like this.” E shook eir head. “A cold-blooded, carefully planned murder, and I can’t arrest the murderer, and he’ll almost certainly be allowed to leave. And I won’t be able to say anything about it. And then there’s Ethiat Budrakim and his fake Garseddai vestiges.” E reached over, toward the blue and gold beads in their tray, as though e wanted to pick them up, but pushed the tray a few centimeters away instead. “My own family has names that have been here on Hwae since long before the Budrakims ever came to this system. That’s truth, but what vestiges we Hatli have of our ancestors are either sneered at as trivial or kept in a side hall of the System Lareum, as though we aren’t really Hwaean. Or they’re stolen outright and proudly displayed with some other family’s name on them. But the Budrakims! Latecomers to Hwae, like all the Garseddai here—or the people here who claim to be Garseddai. And the vestiges?” E made a disgusted noise. “Fakes from the start. And him willing to throw his own child into Compassionate Removal to conceal it. And I can say nothing about it, except as it serves the interests of Netano Aughskold.” E looked, it seemed reflexively, at eir desk. Closed one hand and opened it again, as though there were something e wanted to pick up. A cup of serbat e couldn’t have because e was fasting, maybe.

  “I know Hevom killed Excellency Zat,” said Ingray. “I don’t think he’s even trying to hide it.”