Chapter 34: Kamura
She hated gardening, that’s what Kamura had learned from this morning’s experience, hated it with a passion. Dirt turning to mud as she lugged heavy buckets full of water from plant to plant, eyes itching, nose dripping, hands blistering; she swore she’d never do it again. As far as she was concerned, gardening was only slightly more pleasant than crossing the Waste on foot.
"More bread?" Jak asked, holding a chunk out to Tessa.
The Veloran shook her head. "I’m full. You eat it, Jak. You’re twice as big as any one of us. You need more food."
So like Jak, always looking out for Tessa before himself. She hadn’t noticed Toko offering her anything more to eat. Not that she wanted it. She was quite full, thank you. Kamura downed a final bite of bread and fish. Maybe having a full stomach was worth the misery of gardening. She wiped her hands on her trousers and burped lightly.
Leaning back on a convenient rock, she looked down the slope toward the city of Tekena. They’d stopped atop a small hill and settled into a shady place among a stand of saltbush to enjoy their picnic. The city was maybe a kilometer below them. Tents surrounded Tekena where those who couldn’t obtain lodgings camped outside of town, and still more people approached. The straggling lines of visitors streamed together into a sea of people descending on the city. The low buildings with adobe walls looked much like Namdrik, but the Black Palace rising behind them said that this place was their goal. It didn’t really look like a palace, Kamura thought; more like a bubbling, twisting pile of, well, worm crap. It was an ugly heap, gleaming with menace, the place she was about to destroy along with everyone there, including the people she’d come to care about. She felt lower than a worm herself. But the others were talking to her. Reluctantly, she turned to face them.
"So, there you are," Jak told her, "Tekena, or close enough."
"Definitely close enough," Tessa agreed. "And we’re done. We’ve delivered you, as required. Now we’ll see if we can find a barge or, better yet, an aircar making a return trip to Namdrik."
"No!" Kamura protested. They couldn’t split up now. She might never find Jak again, and she couldn’t let him slip away, not now that she was certain he carried the phage. "The agreement was to take me all the way to the city. We’re still at least two kilometers from Tekena."
"What? You need your hand held the whole way?" Jak asked.
Kamura sighed. "I need more than that. We need more. You know that."
She looked over at Toko who gazed back at her from slanted, clever eyes. They’d made their plans earlier, while still in the desert. He was going to let her do the talking. After all, Toko wasn’t exactly stellar at diplomacy; he tended to prefer to persuade at the point of a knife. That wouldn’t get them far with Jak and Tessa.
"We need for Jak to kill Bolon," she began. She held up her hand to forestall protests. "Jak, I know you’re not a killer for hire, but Bolon isn’t a man. He’s one-third of an extremely dangerous alien. I hope—Toko and I hope—that destroying one of the Selok’s host bodies will disrupt the phage enough to give Toko a chance to take the God Core from the false Prime."
"Even if I agreed to do that, which I’m not, how am I supposed to find Bolan?" Jak asked. "It’s not like there’s going to be a sign saying, ‘This way to the bad guy.’"
"He finds you," Toko said. "You can sense him. He can sense you. Just get close, and he’ll come looking for you. No problem."
Jak snorted. "No problem."
But Kamura and Toko thought it was true, assuming being able to sense other phages really did go both ways. Graff n’Chall and the false Prime were locked into the ongoing ceremony of the Joining. If the Selok noticed Jak, it could only send the Bolan host body after him.
"Oh, and I suppose Toko has been invited to the ceremony so he can stand conveniently close by when the High Priest brings out the God Core," Tessa said, scowling.
Kamura had known the Veloran wouldn’t like putting Jak at risk. If Tessa knew what she really planned, Kamura was sure she’d find the other woman’s knife in her heart. She was thankful that Toko decided to help her out. It gave her a moment to get her face and voice under control.
"We go in as priests of Nish," Toko said, "me and Kamura. I take the God Core, and Kamura Records the Joining. All done. Nothing anybody can do about it."
Tessa snorted. "You make it sound so simple and easy."
"It is simple," Kamura said. "It’s just not easy."
"No," Tessa told them. "We won’t do it. You’re at Tekena, and we’re getting out of here."
"Be hard to leave Shadriss," Toko said. "If Uncle becomes Overlord, you won’t get far." He looked at Jak. "If I’m Overlord, you get free passage off Shadriss. Both of you. A nice, safe trip, yes? Aircar to the port at Namdrik and passage—first-class—on the next passenger ship."
"And I can offer you a lucrative contract to start your new trading company," Kamura added.
She pushed away the nausea and shame she felt. If they accepted her offer, they’d never live to start their company.
"No," Tessa said.
"Yes," Jak said at the same time.
Tessa glared at him.
"Yes," Jak repeated, looking at Tessa. "Safe passage off Shadriss, a trading contract, our own ship; it’s everything you ever wanted. Everything we ever wanted."
"I know the details of the ceremony of Joining," Kamura said, speaking so quickly that she stumbled over her words, "and Toko knows of a few of the hidden passages. He thinks he can get us inside the Black Palace."
"My father showed me," Toko said. "Before Uncle killed him."
"Oh, right. Now we’re supposed to think you know your way around the palace after spending half your life as a mobbie?"
"Not half," Toko said. "Four years, yes? And I don’t know all. I just know one, maybe two ways that nobody else knows. But that’s enough. We get inside. Jak kills Bolon. Uncle gets a big headache. I take the God Core."
"We know that the Selok created the Black Palace from the secretions of their host bodies," Kamura said.
"Worm crap," Jak interrupted.
Kamura ignored the comment. "When humans came, they dug out the walls between some of the tunnels to make larger rooms. Others they just sealed off. Toko knows one of those passages that will take us well inside the palace. From there, we’ll need to make our way to the throne room. It’s where they’ll hold the ceremony."
"Even if you can get in," Tessa said, "you’ll never get near the Prime."
"The false Prime will be surrounded by priests," Kamura said. "There will be an outer ring of priests of the Lady Ur and, inside that, priests of Nish."
"Red-robes," Jak said thoughtfully.
"Wearing gloves and black masks," Kamura said.
"It just might work," Jak said. "If we’re really lucky."
"I still don’t like it."
"Tessa, you’re the one who said that life needed a little risk. This will spice things up nicely."
Nauseated, Kamura looked away from them and back down at the city.