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Trace’s fishing trip with Roft went a long way toward improving the youngling’s attitude. He seemed more relaxed.
Sonha planned to take him to town with her right after breakfast. It would be an all day trip. They needed to see the buyer.
Roft advised her to renegotiate their contract. He predicted a bumper harvest unless a weather event overtook them and he guessed that wasn’t likely. The worst of the storm season had passed. From here on out, warm weather and irrigation from the river would swell the buds into generous amounts of fruit and nuts.
First would come the atta. The round yellow globes with a pale pink tinge tasted like some kind of custard in the middle. Roft’s always sold for a fraction more than the other orchards because of the tender care he took of the trees. With his backing, the buyer would now include her harvest in the grade A sales.
The shuffle of bare feet and a yawn behind her alerted Sonha to Trace’s presence in the kitchen. They were up a little earlier than usual. This time they would catch the extra early GalDocs broadcast together.
“Can I turn it on?” he asked.
“Sure. I need to set out your brothers’ breakfast. Then we’ll eat and get out of here. I plan to drop the truck off for service while we see the buyer. I’m not sure how long that will take, but it should give us a few hours to knock around town. Sightsee.”
He tapped on the screen. The picture came up and Trace’s hand gripped her shoulder. “It’s Fath—”
“Quiet!” Her hand went over his mouth. She cut off the sound and they watched the words roll across the bottom of the screen. The head of the viper pirates had been captured. The rulers of the separate royal houses had reached an understanding. Pindanten would now take over guardianship of Umattan for an undisclosed amount of time. The titular ruler of Umattan, Notalt, hadn’t replied to questions as to why he wasn’t taking the throne. They would be following the breaking story and keep everyone apprised of developments.
“We should...”
“Get dressed; we must get on the road. Hurry it up. We’ll pick up lunch in town.”
When Trace would have turned back to the screen, Sonha disconnected it and pushed the young male in the direction of his room. “Not here. We’ll talk in the truck on the road.”
The old hover truck took a little while to warm up. Trace wiggled in the passenger seat and went to turn on his tablet.
“No. Don’t pull that up. Give everything a few minutes. As soon as we get enroute, we’ll talk.”
The youth grunted something, but obeyed. Sonha felt grateful for that much. She understood his impatience.
As soon as they reached the designated route for the city, he turned her direction. “We need to try to reach Father from town.”
“No. Not yet.”
“But... you saw him on the report.”
“Quiet a minute and I’ll explain why we can’t do that.”
“But—”
“Will you let me speak?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Trace huddled into the corner of his seat.
“I know who that male was with him. That was the other royal from the House Pindanten. I listened to the message and didn’t see one word from Notalt about anyone feeling free to come home. Not one phrase. Truthfully, did you?”
“Well, I guess not.”
“Which tells me your father isn’t sure of anything yet. We’re going to continue living as we have. I don’t see a reason to change a thing. Sorry, I know how much you want to be with your family. I want that for all of you. What I saw on GalDocs didn’t give any indication that things had stabilized yet. Rabande is going to assume guardianship. So, where will Notalt be? In jail? Under house arrest? Nothing on the news said we had a clear path to take you three home. Your parents told me to keep you safe and that’s what I’m doing. It may not be what you want, but it’s what you need.”
“I didn’t see Mother. I’m worried about her.”
Sonha waited for a minute to speak. “I understand. But at least you know your father is alive. He looked well. I didn’t see any bruises. No signs of ill treatment. That’s good. But we need to let him find us.”
“How in the seven hells do you suppose he can do that? We’re going by different names and we’re on this fucking hole—”
“Watch your mouth with me, Trace Tatter. I’m not someone you can knock around. Try that crap with me and I’ll put bruises on you in places you’ve never thought about.”
“Sorry! But it’s...”
“Frustrating as fuck. I get it. Listen, if Notalt wants to find us, he can. And he’s one of the few forms that can. He’ll go back to where he hired me and start asking questions. If he pushes hard enough, he’ll get the right answers. Meanwhile, we do what we need to. There are the twins to consider and Matta. We can’t dump her and run off. Nor do we want to say anything to your brothers. They don’t need to hear a word.”
His face turned to the side, Trace’s shoulders shook. Sonha ignored him as she felt he would want her to. In her head, she cursed Inved, the pirates, and foolish males in general. So there was a snake-cursed recession universe wide. If people had pulled together instead of working for their own gain, everyone would make it to the other side. But no, there were always life forms who wanted everything the easy way, take what some other poor individual managed to work for.
The young male she’d grown to love would come through it. Still, it put him through all seven of the hells. Unlike the twins, he understood the stakes. His father might not come for them. Notalt might languish in a cell somewhere or, worse, die alone.
“Why?”
Ruket leaned across the space and patted the fist clenched on her knee. “You know the answer. We’ve been through that several times already. I must help where I can. The four of us—you, me, Notalt, and Nic are bound for Calius. That is, unless you want me to send you back to the head office and they can reassign you. I certainly won’t force you to make the trip.”
“No.” Ivanda shook her head. “I took this job and I intend to see it through. Complicated by how much I care about you. If you go down on Calius, it will be after they have taken me out.”
“I certainly don’t expect it to go that far. And Nic could watch out for me.”
“I suspect watching Notalt—no, we’d better continue to call him Natt, a slip could cost someone their lives—will keep Nic occupied. Which is another reason I’m not going to let you go with only Tadson as your guard.”
“Can we reach a compromise?”
“On what? There will be no compromise on your safety. I refuse to allow it.”
“No, no.” He waved both hands in the air. “Not on that. But I can disguise myself.”
She couldn’t hold back a laugh. “As what? My ancient father? That might work.”
“You don’t think I’d be credible as a wealthy gambler from, say, Caleta?”
He must have noted her shocked expression. Ruket put a hand over his face to muffle a laugh. “I gather you don’t think I could pull that off.”
Ivanda smiled at the male she idolized. “Let’s discuss mechanics here. I don’t understand how your telepathic gift works, but I’ll guess you have some means of shielding yourself from others. If not, you surely would be rolling on the floor now with the force of my thoughts. If you are shielding, then you aren’t going to know when someone has a bad intent toward you. Am I correct?”
“You are. I can and do guard my mental stability. What I’m planning to do is probe the forms Notalt, er... Natt feels will have information. I can do so and not give myself away.”
“Then you need me to keep them from harming you. Since you do, I expect you to agree to do what I say when I say. No excuses. You and Natt are to notify me when you feel the need to delve into someone’s thoughts. I will make sure you are safe when that happens.”
“Reasonable. I can abide by those terms.”
“As to your identity, let’s keep it simple. You are a retired something, I’ll let you decide what, and have always wanted to see Calius. But you are to use a nanophage to change your appearance. And I don’t think you should go as a Fjellskoglander. That would be inviting trouble. Something else I hope to keep to a minimum.”
“I’m to use a nanophage? I’ve never done that before. What if it changes my talent?”
“It can be given guidance. We can limit its use to changing your appearance only.”
“I must admit I find the prospect disconcerting.”
This time she leaned across to pat his hand. “Not to worry. I’ll talk you through it all. It won’t hurt a bit.”
“How did I manage without you before?”
“I’ve no idea. Before we start working with you and the nanophage, we must acquire some. I suspect all they have on Greenhouse 2 is the lesser variety, the black market stuff. I think we’ll need a side trip to Nippon. I know we can get what we need there. We’ll talk about it all when we meet up on Greenhouse 2.”
He lifted a bottle of wine from the table and filled his glass. “That gives me a short window to get used to the idea. Ah, perhaps that is what I’ll be, a retired Nipponese professor.” Ruket took a sip from his goblet and leaned back. “That will be perfect. And I even knew someone when younger who was a retired professor from Nippon. I’ll fit into that role easily.”
“Then we have a plan. Good.” She relaxed into the cushions of the chair. He would be a very old retired teacher. Quite old.
