 CHAPTER XV His face was worse than mine. He hadn't had the plastic surgeons of Terran Intelligence doing their best for him. His mouth, I thought fleetingly, must hurt like hell when he drew it up into the kind of grin he was grinning now. His eyebrows, thick and fierce with grey in them, went up as he saw mail in, but he backed away to let us enter, and shut the door behind us. The room was bare, and didn't look as if it had been lived in much. The floor was stone, rough-laid, a single fur-rug laid before abrasia. A little girl was sitting on the rug, drinking from a big double-handled mug, but she scrambled to her feet as we came in, and backed against the wall, looking at us with wide eyes. She had pale red hair like Julie's, cut straight in a fringe across her forehead, and she was dressed in a smock of dyed red fur that almost matched her hair. A little smear of milk, like a white moustache, clung to her upper lip, where she'd forgotten to wipe her mouth. She was about five years old, with deep-set, dark eyes like Julie's, that watched me gravely, without surprise or fear. She evidently knew who I was. Rindy, Raqal said quietly, not taking his eyes from me, go into the other room. Rindy didn't move, still staring at me. Then she moved towards Meilin, looking up intently, not at the woman, but at the pattern of embroideries across her dress. It was very quiet. Until Raqal added, in a gentle and curiously moderate voice, Do you still carry a skein-race? I shook my head. As an ancient proverb on terror, about blood being thicker than water, Raqal. That's Julie's daughter. I'm not going to kill her father right before her eyes. My rage spilled over then, and I bet I'd to hell with your damn dry-town feuds, and your filthy toad-god, and all the rest of it. Raqal said harshly, Rindy, I told you to get out. She didn't go. I took a step towards the little girl, a wary eye on Raqal. I don't know quite what you're up to, but it's nothing for a child to be mixed up in. Do what you damn please. I can settle with you any time. The first thing is to get Rindy out of here. She belongs with Julie, and damn it, that's where she's going. I held up my arms to the little girl and said, It's over, Rindy. Whatever he's done to you, your mother sent me to find you. Don't you want to go to your mother? Raqal made a menacing gesture and warned I wouldn't. Meilin darted swiftly between us and caught up the child in her arms. Rindy began to struggle noiselessly, kicking and whimpering, but Meilin took two quick steps and flung an inner door open. Raqal took a stride towards her. She whirled on him, fighting to control the furious little girl and casped, Settle it between you without the baby-watching. Through the open door I briefly saw a bed, a child's small dresses hanging on a hook, before Meilin kicked the door shut, and I heard a latch being fastened. Behind the closed door Rindy broke into angry screams, but I put my back against the door. She's right. We'll settle it between the two of us. What have you done to the child? If you thought Raqal stopped himself in mid-sentence, and stood watching me, without moving for a minute. Then he laughed, You're as stupid as ever, race! Are you fool? I knew Julie would run straight to you, if she was scared enough. I knew it would bring you out of hiding. Why, you damn fool! He stood mocking me, but there was a strained fury, almost a frenzy of contempt behind the laughter. You filthy coward, race! Six years hiding in the Terran Zone. Six years, and I gave you six months. If you'd had the guts to walk out after me, after I rigged that final deal to give you a chance, we could have gone after the biggest thing on Wolf, and we could have brought it off together, in spite of spending years spying and dodging and hunting. And now, when I finally get you out of hiding, all you want to do is run back where you'll be safe. I thought you had more guts. Not for ever in dirty work. Raqal swore hideously. Ever in? Do you really believe—I might have known he'd get to you, too. That girl. And you managed to wreck all I did there, too. Suddenly, so swiftly my eyes could hardly follow, he whipped out his scheme and came at me. Get away from that door! I stood my ground. He'll have to kill me first. And I won't fight you, Raqal. We'll settle this, but we'll do it my way for once, like earthmen. Son of the ape! Get your scheme out, you stinking coward! I won't do it, Raqal. I stood and defied him. I had outmaneuvered dry-towners in a shagery bet. I knew, Raqal, and I knew he would not knife an unarmed man. We fought once with the Qifar, and it didn't settle anything. This time we'll do it my way. I threw my scheme away before I came here. I won't fight. He thrusted me. Even I could see that the blow was a faint, and I had a flashing, instantaneous memory of Dalas's threat to drive the knife through my palms. But even while I commanded myself to stand steady, sheer reflex threw me forward, grabbing at his wrist and the knife. In my grappling hand he twisted, and I felt the scheme drive home. Rip through my jacket with a tearing sound. Felt the thin, fine line of touch, not pain yet, as it sliced flesh. The pain burned through my ribs, and I felt hot blood, and I wanted to kill Raqal, wanted to get my hands round his throat and kill him with them. At the same time I was raging because I didn't want to fight the crazy fool. I wasn't even mad at him. When the door opened, shrieking, and suddenly the toy, released, was darting a small, whirring, droning horror straight at Raqal's eyes. I yelled, but there was no time to warn him. I bent and butted him in the stomach. He grunted, doubled up in agony, and fell out of the path of the diving toy. It worded in frustration, hovered. He writhed in agony, dooring up his knees, clawing at his shirt, while I turned on Melein in immense fury and stopped. Hers had been a move of desperation, an instinctive act to restore the balance between a weaponless man and one who had a knife. Raqal gasped in a hoarse voice, with all the breath gone from it. Didn't want to use, rather fight clean. Then he opened his closed fist, and suddenly there were two of the little, whirring, droning horrors in the room, and this one was diving at me. And as I threw myself head long to the floor, the last puzzle-piece fell into place. Rindy had made the same bargain with Raqal as with me. I rolled over, dodging. Behind me in the room there was a child's shrill scream, Daddy, Daddy! And abruptly the birds collapsed in mid-air and went limp. They fell to the floor like dropping stones and lay there, quivering. Rindy dashed across the room, her small skirts flying, and grabbed up one of the terrible vicious things in either hand. Rindy up-alowed. No! she stood shaking, tears pouring down her round cheeks, a toy squeezed tight in either hand. Dark veins stood out, almost black on her fair temples. Break them, Daddy! she implored, in a little thread of her voice. Break them quick! I can't hang on! Raqal staggered to his feet like a drunken man, and snatched one of the toys, grinding it under his heel. He made a grab at the second, reeled and drew in an anguished breath. He crumpled up, clutching at his belly, where I'd butted him. The birds screamed like a living thing, breaking the paralysis of horror. I leapt up, run across the room, heedless of the searing pain along my side. I snatched the bird from Rindy as it screamed and shrilled, and died as my foot crunched the tiny feathers. I stamped the still-moving thing into an amorphous mess, and kept on stamping and smashing until it was only a heap of powder. Raqal finally managed to haul himself upright again. His face was so pale that the scars stood out like fresh burns. That was a foul blow, Race, but I—I know why you did it. He stopped and breathed for a minute. Then he muttered, You saved my life, you know. Did you know you were doing it when you did it? Still breathing hard, I nodded. Done knowingly, it meant an end of blood feud. However, we had wronged each other, whatever the pledges. I spoke the words that confirmed it and ended it, finally and forever. There is a life between us. Let it stand for a death. Maylène was standing in the doorway. Her hands pressed to her mouth, her eyes wide. She said shakily, You're walking round with a knife in your ribs, you fool. Raqal whirled with a quick jerk. He pulled the skin loose. It had simply been caught in my shirt cloak, in a fold of the rough cloth. He pulled it away, glanced at the red tip, then relaxed. Not more than an inch deep, he said. Then angrily defending himself, You did it yourself, you ape! I was trying to get rid of the knife when you jumped me. But I knew that. And he knew I knew it. He turned and scooped up Rindy, who was sobbing noisily. She dug her head into his shoulder, and I made out her strangled words, The other toys hurt you when I was mad at you, she sobbed, rubbing her fists against smeared cheeks. Like, I wasn't that mad at you. I wasn't that mad at anybody. Not even him. Raqal pressed his hand against his daughter's fleecy hair, and said, looking at me over her head, The toys activated child subconscious resentments against his parents. I found out that much. That also means a child can control them for a few seconds. No adult can. A stranger would have seen no change in his expression. But I knew him, and saw. Julie said you threatened Rindy. He chuckled, and set the child on her feet. What else could I say that would have scared Julie enough to send her running to you? Julie's proud, almost as proud as you are, your stiff-necked son of the ape. The insult did not sting me now. Come on, sit down, and let's decide what to do. Now we've finished up the old business. He looked remotely at Meilin, and said, You must be Dallas's sister. I don't suppose your talents include knowing how to make coffee. They didn't. But with Rindy's help, Meilin managed. And while they were out of the room, Raqal explained briefly. Rindy has rudimentary ESP. I've never had it myself, but I could teach her something, but not much, about how to use it. I've been on ever-ins track ever since that business of the list. I'd have got it sooner if you were still working with me, but I couldn't do anything as a Terran agent. And I had to be kicked out so thoroughly that the others wouldn't be afraid I was still working secretly for Terran. For a long time I was just chasing rumours, but when Rindy got big enough to look in the crystals of Nebran, I started making some progress. I was afraid to tell Julie. Her best safety was the fact that she didn't know anything. She's always been a stranger in the Drytowns. He paused, and then said with honest self-evaluation, Since I left the Secret Service, I've been a stranger there myself. I asked, What about Dallisa? Twins have some ESP to each other. I knew Maylin had gone to the Toymaker. I tried to get Dallisa to find out where Maylin had gone, learn more about it. Dallisa wouldn't risk it. But Kiral saw me with Dallisa and thought it was Maylin. That put him on my tail too, and I had to leave Shainsaw. I was afraid of Kiral, he pointed soberly. Afraid of what he'd do, I couldn't do anything without Rindy, and I knew, if I told Julie what I was doing, she'd take Rindy away into the Terran zone, and I'd be as good as dead. As he talked, I began to realise how vast a web Everyn and the underground organization of Nebran had spread for us. Everyn was here to-day. What for? Kiral laughed, mirthlessly. He's been trying to get us to kill each other off. That would get rid of us both. He wants to turn over Wolf to the non-humans entirely. I think he's sincere enough, but—he sped his hands helplessly—I can't sit by and see it. I asked, point blank, are you working for terror, or for the dry towns, or any of the anti-Terran movements? I'm working for me, he said, with a shrug. I don't think much of the Terran Empire, but one planet can't fight a galaxy. Race, I want just one thing. I want the dry towns and the rest of Wolf to have a voice in their own government. Any planet which makes a substantial contribution to galactic science by the laws of the Terran Empire is automatically given the status of an independent Commonwealth. If a man from the dry towns discovers something like a matter transmitter, Wolf gets dominion status. But Everyn and his gang want to keep it secret, keep it away from terror, keep it locked up in places like Canasa. Somebody has to get it away from them, and if I do it, I get a nice fat bonus and an official position. I believe that. Where I would have suspected too much protestation of altruism. Kiral tossed it aside. You've got mail in to take you through the transmitters. Go back to the Master Shrine and tell Everyn that raced Cargill is dead. In the trade city they think I'm Cargill, and I can get in and out as I choose. Sorry if it caused you trouble, but it was the safest thing I could think of. An Alvide's Magnuson have him send soldiers to guard the Street Shrines. Everyn might try to escape through one of them. I shook my head. Terror hasn't enough men on all Wolf to cover the Street Shrines in Sharon alone. And I can't go back with Malin. I explained. Kiral pursed his lips and whistle when I described the fight in the transmitter. You have all the luck, Cargill. I've never been near enough, even to be sure how they work. And I'll bet you didn't begin to understand. We'll have to do it the hard way, then. It won't be the first time we've pulled our way through a tight place. We'll face Everyn in his own hideout. If Rindy's with us, we'd needn't worry. I was willing to let him assume command, but I protested. You take a child into that—that? What else can we do? Rindy can control the toys, and neither you nor I can do that if Everyn should decide to throw his whole arsenal at us. He called Rindy, and spoke softly to her. She looked from her father to me, and back again to her father, then smiled, and stretched out her hand to me. Before we ventured into the street, Raquel scowled at the sprawled embroideries on Malin's robe. He said, In those things you show up like a snowfall in Shainsaw. If you go out in them you could be mobbed. Hadn't you better get rid of them now? I can't, she protested. They're the keys to the transmitter. Raquel looked at the conventionalised idols with curiosity, but said only, Cuff them up in the street, then. Rindy, find her something to put over her dress. When we reached the street shine, Malin admonished, Stand close together on the stones. I'm not sure we can all make the jump at once, but we'll have to try. Raquel picked up Rindy, and hoisted her to his shoulder. Malin dropped the cloak she had draped over the pattern of the neighbouring embroideries, and we crowded close together. The street swayed and vanished, and I felt the now familiar dip and swirl of blackness before the world straightened out again. Rindy was whimpering, dabbing smeary fists at her face. Daddy, my nose is bleeding. Malin hastily bent and wiped the blood from the snubby nose. Raquel gestured impatiently. The workroom. Wreck everything you see. Rindy, if anything starts to come at us, you stop it. Stop it quick, and—he bent and took the little face between his hands. Jia, remember, they're not toys, no matter how pretty they are. Her grave grey eyes blinked, and she nodded. Raquel flung open the door of the Elves' workshop with a shout. The ringing of the anvils shattered into a thousand dissonances as I kicked over a workbench, and half-finished toys crashed in confusion on the floor. The dwarfs scattered like rabbits before our assault of destruction. I smashed tools, filigree, jewels, stamping everything with my heavy boots. I shattered glass, caught up a hammer, and smashed crystals. There was a wild exhilaration to it. A tiny doll, proportioned like a woman, dashed towards me, shrilling in her supersonic shriek. I put my foot on her and ground the life out of her, and she screamed like a living woman as she came apart. Her blue eyes rolled from her head and lay on the floor, watching me. I crushed the blue jewels under my heel. Raquel swung a tiny hound by the tail. Its head shattered into debris of almost invisible gears and wheels. I caught up a chair and wrecked glass cabinet of parts with it, swinging furiously. A berserk madness of smashing and breaking had laid hold of me. I was drunk with crushing and shattering and ruining when I heard mail-in screamer warning, and turned to see Everyn standing in the doorway. His green cat eyes blazed with rage. Then he raised both hands in a sudden, sardonic gesture, and with a loping, inhuman glide, raced for the transmitter. Rindy! Raquel panted. Can he block the transmitter? Instead, Rindy shrieked. We've got to get out. The roof is falling down. The house is going to fall down on us. The roof! Look at the roof! I looked up, transfixed by horror. I saw a wide rift open. I saw the skylight shatter and break, and daylight pouring through the cracking walls. Raquel snatched Rindy up, protecting her from the falling debris with his head and shoulders. I grabbed mail-in round the waist, and we ran for the rift in the buckling wall. We shoved through just before the roof caved in, and the walls collapsed, and we found ourselves standing on a bare, grassy hillside, looking down in shock and horror. As below us, section after section of what had been apparently bare hill and rock caved in and collapsed into dusty rubble. Rindy then screamed hoarsely. Run! Run! Hurry! I didn't understand, but I ran. I ran my sides aching, blood streaming from the forgotten flesh wound in my side. Mail-in raced beside me, and Raquel stumbled along, carrying Rindy. Then the shock of a great explosion rocked to the ground, hurling me down full length, mail-in falling on top of me. Raquel went down on his knees. Rindy was crying loudly. When I could see straight again, I looked down at the hillside. There was nothing left of ever-inside away, or the master shrine of Nibrun, except a great gaping hole, still oozing smoke and thick black dust. Mail-in said aloud, dazed. So that's what he was going to do. It fitted the peculiar non-human logic of the toy-maker. He'd covered the traces. Destroyed! Raquel raged. All destroyed! The work rooms, the science of the toys, the matter transmitter. The minute we find it, it's destroyed. He beat his fists furiously. Our one chance to learn. We were lucky to get out alive, said Mail-in quietly. Where on the planet are we, I wonder? I looked down the hillside and stared in amazement. Spread out on the hillside below us, lay the chasa, topped by the white skyscraper of the HQ. I'll be damned, I said, right here. We're home, Raquel! You can go down and make your peace with the Terrans, and Julie. And you, Mail-in? Before the others, I could not say what I was thinking, but I put my hand on her shoulder and kept it there. She smiled, shakily, with the hint of her old mischief. I can't go into the Terran zone looking like this, can I? Give me that comb again. Raquel, give me your shirt-clog, my robes-a-torn. You vain, stupid female, worrying about a thing like that at a time like this. Raquel's look was like murder. I put my comb in her hand, then suddenly saw something in the symbols across her breasts. Before this I had seen only the conventionalised and intricate glyph of the toad-god, but now I reached out and ripped the cloth away. Cargill! she protested angrily, crimsoning, covering her bare breasts with both hands. Is this the place? And before a child too? I hardly heard. Look! I exclaimed. Raquel, look at the symbols embroidered into the glyph of the god. You can read the old non-human glyphs. You did it in the city of the Lys. Mail-in said they were the key to the transmitters. I'll bet the formula is written out there for anyone to read. Anyone that is who can read it. I can't, but I'll bet the formula equations for the transmitters are carved on every toad-god glyph on wolf. Raquel, it makes sense. There are two ways of hiding something. Either keep it locked away or hide it right out in plain sight. Whoever bothers even to look at a conventionalised toad-god, there are so many billions of them. He bent his head over the embroideries, and when he looked up, his face was flushed. I believe? By the chains of sharer, I believe you have it, race! It may take years to work out the glyphs, but I'll do it or die trying. His scarred and hideous face looked almost handsome in exultation, and I grinned at him. If Julie leaves enough of you, once she finds out how you were nufoured her. Look! Rindy's fallen asleep on the grass there. Poor kid. We'd better get her down to her mother. Right! Raquel thrust the precious embroidery into his shirt cloak, then cradled his sleeping daughter in his arms. I watched him with a curious emotion I could not identify. It seemed to pinpoint some great change, either in Raquel or myself. It's not difficult to visualise one's sister with children, but there was something—some strange incongruity in the sight of Raquel carrying the little girl, carefully tucking her up in a fold of his cloak to keep the sharp breeze off her face. Malin was limping in her thin sandals, and she shivered. I asked, cold? No. But I don't believe ever in his dad. I'm afraid he got away. For a minute the thought dimmed the luster of the morning. It was in my hands that I struck. He's probably buried in that big hole up there. But I knew I would never be sure. We walked abreast, my arm round the weary, stumbling woman, and Raquel said softly at last, like old times. It wasn't old times, I knew. He would know it too once his exaltation soared. I had outgrown my love for intrigue, and I had the feeling this was Raquel's last adventure. It was going to him, as he said, years to work out the equations for the transmitter. And I had a feeling my own solid ordinary desk was going to look good to me in the morning. But I knew now that I had never run away from Wolf again. It was my own beloved son that was rising. My sister was waiting for me down below, and I was bringing back her child. My best friend was walking at my side, what more could a man want? If the memory of dark poison-berry eyes was to haunt me in nightmares, they did not come into the waking world. I looked at May Lynn, took her slender, unmanacled hand in mine, and smiled as we walked through the gates of the city. Now, after all my years on Wolf, I understood the desire to keep their women under lock and key that was its ancient custom. I vowed to myself, as we went, that I would waste no time finding a fetter-shop, and having forged their end the perfect steel chains that should bind my love's wrists to my key forever.