Part 9
Terise
As she reached the last village the rain started. It had been cold enough for her shawl since Ultima, there was nothing she could do except pull the folds closer round her face and plod on. The chari flowers had all been harvested now, leaving only brown stalks where the blooms had been. They would be drying in the barns below, waiting for shipping to Ultima or Chaireddan for half the price it took to grow them. There were no growers to be seen today, no farmers tilling their fields or Jeba on the higher slopes, nothing but the clouds lowering over the shoulder of the hill and the grey scarves of rain.
The wind swooped through the trees like the sea at high tide, tossing handfuls of brown leaves onto her shoulders as she climbed the ridge. The trees grew more closely at the top, away from the fields, crowding around the road that was suddenly just a path through the trunks, the beginning of the great forest that stretched from here through the mountains to the northern sea. She was back in ViaVera territory now, and as if to welcome her the rain began to fall with renewed persistence through the leaves. Despite the cover, the path was already muddy and treacherous. Terise suppressed a sigh and struggled on.
It was just beginning to get dark when she passed the two trees leaning together and turned left for the last long push up the hill to the camp. Of the two young men on guard at the gate, she could almost remember the name of one of them, while the other was somehow familiar but she couldn’t recall having met him before. From their attitudes it was clear they knew her, though she went through the password as a matter of form and they answered as they should. It was always a good idea to teach the young one’s good practice, she had learned that. She thought as they opened the gate that they looked at her oddly, but with the rain and the gloom it was difficult to say. She raised her hand in thanks and passed through.
The first thing she noticed was the quiet. Like any small town, the camp was usually a bustling place, guerrillas coming and going on a hundred different tasks, laughing and shouting and arguing as they did so. Now that it was evening, the young ones should be coming back from the practice field with the training weapons on their shoulders, the women preparing the dinner and calling to them. But all there was, was the sound of the rain. Terise wiped the water from her face and went on up into the center.
Most of the huts were closed and shuttered, the thin plumes of smoke from their chimneys the only indication that they were not deserted. She walked past an open door and inside saw several men, talking in low voices. They broke off as she came into view but said nothing, just watched her pass with expressions it was too dark to read. She was sure she would have known them, but none of them called out. She picked up her pace. When they’d come back from Santos it had been a hot, hot day like the whole world was burning, but when Mara died it had been like this.
They’d landed in the dark to the north of the camp and come the rest of the way on foot. There’d been a cold wind from the east and it had been raining then as well, hard sharp drops with a presage of winter in them, stinging where they fell. She had walked in behind Ladyani and everyone had stood at the doors of the huts and watched them, just watched them without any sound at all, because there were no words for what they had to say. Like now; because she knew what had to have happened now.
A woman stepped out of a hut ahead of her, carrying a basket. She peered through the murk.
‘Elenore?’
Elenore stopped dead.
‘Terise.’
She was too far away for Terise to hear her clearly, but neither of them seemed able to come closer.
‘You’re back, then.’
‘Yes. What’s happened?’ She could hardly make herself form the words. ‘It’s Ladyani, isn’t it?’
‘What? I can’t hear you.’
She shouted above the noise of the rain, exorcising. ‘Ladyani’s dead.’
‘What? No, of course not.’ There was still this absurd distance between them, the news that Terise didn’t know.
‘Then what? Is it Issa? Is she alright?’
‘Yes, she’s fine. You mean you don’t know?’
Terise screeched in frustration.
‘Know what?’
‘The Airdrossa group. They tried to blow up a ministry and it went wrong. Stevan’s dead, Marsana’s caught, they’re rounding up supporters all through the city now. The whole network’s gone. You mean you didn’t know?’
She thought of Marsana as she had last seen him, walking away from the transport stop with his waiter’s uniform gleaming from its wash. She thought of Stevan playing with the broken blaster, of Maria, waiting for this. Had the survivors come running back to the house, had they rushed in, calling? Had they told her gently, or over their shoulders as they packed up the weapons, no time for more? Or had the first thing she’d known about it been when the CAS kicked down the door?
She could see them now, in a room in the ministry building like the ones she’d known, telling her how it had been. Did they expect her to cry? She’d had the tears waiting so many years they’d dried behind her lids. For a moment, she was standing at the top of the stairs in the Airdrossa house, looking down the well to the ground floor and the CAS men running in. Then she blinked and the rain fell into her eyes, ran down her face, uncaring. At least she wasn’t waiting any more.
‘I didn’t know. I’ve been three weeks on the road, I didn’t even know they were planning anything.’ I didn’t mean a ministry, I meant a shop or something, a soft target, they knew that, surely. And I meant Anjeta should be alone. She could justify herself, but it was safer to deny any knowledge at all. ‘They knew security was tight, they should never have tried…’ She let herself tail off. ‘I had no idea.’
Elenore put the basket down on the mud and ran up to her. ‘I knew it wouldn’t be your fault,’ she said as she embraced her. ‘But I’m so glad you’re alright, I was worried.’ She pulled back a little. ‘And you’re soaked. Come and get dried off, and you can tell me all about Airdrossa.’
‘I’d better go and find Issa first, tell her I’m back.’ ‘She never thought…’
‘No, I’m sure. But I should still see her. I’ll come by after dinner, maybe, if you want.’
Elenore dropped her hands. ‘Of course. I’ll see you later.’
She gave Terise a final pat on the back and watched as she went on up the path to the palace.
***
Marsana had come to the transport stop with her on his way to his shift. He’d stood on the edge of the pavement, rocking his heels back and forward in the gutter as the transports buzzed past, looking dutiful and faintly bored.
‘You don’t have to wait with me, you know. Really, it might be ages yet. You might as well go.’
‘I don’t mind,’ he’d said. ‘After you’ve come all that way it’s the least I can do.’
‘I would have thought you’d have had enough of me by now.’
‘Not at all! We might not always be the easiest bunch to get on with, but you’re always welcome. I mean, anyone would be, but I’m always glad it’s you.’
She’d looked away, embarrassed.
‘I’ve been thinking about what you said about Anjeta,’ he went on. ‘I think you’re right, it has to be soon, I don’t think they can take much more of it. If we have to be extra careful then we’ll be extra careful.’
‘I’m glad to hear it.’ It was far too public a place for a discussion. Someone pushed past her, and she felt a light touch on her bag. She grabbed it, whirling round, but there was no one there, only a small group of Jeba, walking away.
Marsana stepped back onto the pavement.
There’s your transport,’ he said. He put his arms around her. She rested her head for a moment against the clean, uncomplicated, detergent smell of his jacket, then pushed herself away.
‘See you again, Terise,’ he said.
‘What a nice young man,’ the woman next to her had remarked as they stowed their bags above their seats. ‘Your son?’
***
The shutters on all the palace windows were closed against the rain. The door was also shut, but under the porch, sheltered by the overhanging roof, was Ihanakan. As she came up he made no movement at first, then, as if remembering a custom foreign to him, he raised one hand and waved. Terise waved back, feeling absurdly happy to see him.
‘She iss waiting for you,’ he said as she reached him. ‘I will take your pack while you go in.’
She shrugged the bag from her shoulder and let it fall to the ground between them.
‘I’m sure she can wait a little longer. How are you?’
Ihanakan had knelt to pick the bag up, his long fingers stroking the top back into place. For a moment it seemed as if he was taking something small and white from it, but that was surely only the way the light flickered in the dusk. He looked down at his hand for a moment, considering.
‘I am…good. Very good.’
‘And everyone at home, in your village, they are well?’ She remembered the slopes on the way down from the camp, the Jeba and the skull on the pole. ‘I saw some of your people on my way to Ultima, with a sheep’s head on a pole, I wondered what they were doing?’
‘They are all well, thank you.’ He paused, as if he would rather ignore the question entirely, then went on. ‘It iss interessting that you have seen what you have seen. It iss a calling ritual that my people do sometimess.’
‘Sometimes?’
‘At timess like these. Issa iss waiting for you.’ He clearly did not want to answer more questions about it. As was often the case with Jeban religion, it was not for outsiders to know.
‘Oh, one of those rituals, was it? Never mind, I can take a hint.’ She straightened up, smiling. ‘It’s good to see you again, Ihanakan. I’ll talk to you later.’
He made a clicking noise with his tongue, something she had learned was an acknowledgement, then translated. ‘Yess.’
Terise shut the palace door behind her and peered into the dim interior. There was a light on the first-floor landing, but nothing below. ‘Issa?’ she called. ‘Issa?’
She heard footsteps, then Issa’s head appeared at the head of the stairs, looking over the banisters into the hall.
‘Terise! You’re back! You had a good trip, come up and tell me all about it.’
‘A good trip? Are you sure about that? You have heard the news from Airdrossa?’
‘Oh yes, well,’ she waived a dismissive arm, ‘It’s to be expected. Now come up, I’m getting a crick in my neck talking to you down there.’
‘So,’ Issa went on as Terise seated herself on the cushions in her room, ‘you’re feeling guilty about Stevan and the others, are you?’
‘No, not really. I didn’t tell them to attack a ministry, it’s their own fault for being reckless, something I warned them about more than once. I know it’s not my fault, but still… I told Marsana they needed to do something with Anjeta, if I hadn’t been there, they’d still…’
‘Who’s Anjeta?’
‘The suicide…’ She remembered Issa’s preferred term. ‘The dedicated one. I don’t know if she was one of the others who were killed, I hope she was. It had been weeks since she’d dedicated herself and they hadn’t had a chance to do anything and she was still there in the house, making them all edgy. They had to do something with her, I know, but…’
‘But you feel guilty because they did.’ Issa regarded her with interest, head on one side. ‘You should have guessed what they were going to do, and stopped them.’
‘Something like that.’ Terise tried to smile, but it came out more like a sigh. ‘So, not a very successful trip. Maybe,’ she added, feeling the sudden freedom that she could, ‘you should send someone else next time.’
‘No, Terise. No.’ Issa leaned forward, holding her gaze. ‘You did exactly what you should have done, exactly what I wanted you to. I couldn’t send anyone else to do what you do. Your trips to Airdrossa were so important for all of us.’ A smile lurked for a moment at the corners of her mouth and was gone again as she went on, seriously, ‘You can be sure, you were where I needed you to be, and I’m pleased, very pleased with you.’
Terise didn’t know what to say. ‘Thank you,’ she faltered.
‘Though you’re right, it’s all different now, I don’t know if you’ll need to go again.’
‘Now the group’s on the run? But there’ll be another, won’t there? We can’t lose Airdrossa.’
‘What? Oh,’ Issa said vaguely, ‘no, of course not. We’ll have to see. Now, it’s nearly dinnertime and I haven’t been to the hall since you went away. Will you do my hair for me?’
Terise finished braiding Issa’s hair with just enough time to slip back to her own hut and change before dinner. She hadn’t asked Issa where Ladyani was, somehow she never liked talking to Issa about Ladyani, although she was sure that she, out of everyone, would have had the answer. She would probably see him at dinner and she wanted to look nice for him, get out of her road-splashed clothes and into something a little more enticing. She hurried up the path to the door.
The power was out again in their part of the camp and there was just a single candle burning, so dim she hadn’t seen until she opened the door that there was any light at all. The rough walls were covered with flickering shadows, the bed, the chest in one corner where they kept their clothes, and Ladyani, standing in the center of the room with a blaster over one shoulder. Terise stopped. It was suddenly difficult to breathe.
‘Lad,’ she said.
‘I heard you were back.’
‘Yes.’ She tried a smile. ‘Here I am.’
His face cracked into a grin. ‘I’m so glad you’re back.’
Terise let go of the door. ‘Oh Lad,’ she said as his arms went round her and the blaster fell to the floor, ‘so am I.’
They were late for dinner. They walked into the hall together as the top table was being served. Terise’s hair was tangled all down her back and the shirt she had travelled in was missing a button where Ladyani had not been able to undo it quickly enough. There were whistles and laughter as they made their way up to their places, but Ladyani had her hand and he was smiling at her, laughing at her as she blushed like the girl he’d brought there years before. He kept his hand on her knee all through the meal and she could feel the warmth spreading through her. He filled her cup up for her and she drank it, an incongruous happiness jumping inside her, like hope.