Dreamer

CHAPTER TWENTY

FROM SEJAL’S JOURNAL DAY 18, MONTH 11, COMMON YEAR 987

I’m not on Bellerophon anymore. I’m on another ship now, a nicer one than the Post Script. I wasn’t even at the monastery two days before This is stupid. My thoughts are wandering all over the place. I don’t know what to think or do or anything. I’ll start at the beginning and maybe it’ll make more sense.

Anyway. Kendi took me shopping. I’ve never had new clothes before. Most of my clothes were hand-me-downs from the neighborhood. The rest came from a secondhand store. But here, Kendi took me into real stores with real salespeople, helpful ones who didn’t try to brush us off.

“There are a bunch of people who want to talk to you,” Kendi said as we finished up. “They want to run some tests on what you can do, and they want to do it this evening. Is that okay with you?”

I nodded, still enjoying the feel of new clothes on my body. They still smelled new, and they were mine.

We took a gondola back to the monastery. It’s like riding in a giant basket on a wire, except the basket is made of metal instead of wicker. Once we got there, we dropped off my stuff and Kendi took me to another building.

Inside was a big room that reminded me of the gymnasium back at my old school, but with a polished floor and new yellow paint. A long table was set up near the far wall. Four humans and four Ched-Balaar were there, along with four other aliens. One looked like a caterpillar, one looked like a stuffed bear, one looked like a small elephant that had been hosed with red candle wax, and one looked like some kind of lizard. The humans were dressed in brown robes with gold disks around their necks.

When Kendi and I reached the table, I remembered to put my fingertips against my forehead like I was supposed to, even though I was suddenly so nervous my teeth were almost chattering. What if they sent me back to the Unity?

The oldest human in the group stepped up to the table, which was between me and him. He used a walking stick and had big purple ring on his hand. “Sejal Dasa? I’m Grandfather Adept Melthine. You can call me ‘Grandfather’ or ‘Grandfather Adept.’“

He introduced the others, including the Ched-Balaar and the other aliens, and they all sat down. The smaller aliens had chairs on the tabletop, and the Ched-Balaar sat on the floor like giant dogs. Kendi and I took chairs on the other side of the table. I still wanted to puke.

“Well, Sejal,” Grandfather Melthine began. “We want to know more about you. You have an unusual ability, and we’re fascinated.”

He sounded friendly enough and he had a nice face. I was still a little wary, though. The others didn’t say anything.

“We’d like to see what you can do,” Grandfather Melthine continued. “Why don’t you start by telling us?”

I hesitated.

“Go ahead, Sejal,” Kendi said. “It’s all right.”

“I can make people do things,” I said nervously.

“Like what?” Melthine asked. His voice was still gentle, not at all stern. I concentrated on him, blocking out the aliens in the room, and was able to relax a little bit.

“I can freeze people in place,” I told him, “and they don’t remember what happened when I let them go. I can also make people want to do something so bad, they do it.”

“Can you give an example?” Melthine said.

“Well, I froze six Unity guard in place so we could get back on the Post Script. And another time I made a guard want to punch his partner so bad that he couldn’t help doing it.”

“A powerful form of whispering,” murmured one of the other humans. “But without entering the Dream.”

“I don’t do it directly,” I added. “I have to sort of… reach through another place. It might be the Dream, but I’m not sure.”

Melthine’s hand was on his walking stick, even though he was sitting. “How does the freezing work, Sejal? What do you do?”

I thought about it. “It’s like I can…see what they’re feeling. Well, not really see. I just sort of know. And then I reach through the weird place and make one of those feelings really strong. The feeling already has to be there. I can’t make new ones.”

“Whispering,” the other human said again.

“How do you ‘freeze’ people, as you call it?” Melthine said.

“I shut their feelings down completely,” I said. “I looked it up once. It’s called apathy. You don’t have feelings, you don’t any reason to do anything. You don’t even care enough to remember what happened.”

Melthine nodded. “You don’t possess people then? Put your mind into someone else’s body and take it for you own?”

“No.”

Everyone in the room gave a little sigh, like they were relieved or something. I didn’t understand it. Several of them looked at Kendi like like he had done something wrong. I didn’t understand that, either. Was Kendi in trouble?

“Sejal,” Kendi said quietly. “Have you ever tried to possess someone completely?”

“No.”

“Can you, do you think?”

I thought about it. “Probably.”

The people at the table got all tense again.

“Try it with me,” Kendi said.

I looked at him. “Take over your body?”

“Sure. It’s nothing new, Sejal. Silent do it all the time. Do that freeze thing, but push harder. You can’t hurt me. It’ll be all right.”

So I did. Before any of the others said anything, I touched Kendi with my mind, like I did with that first jobber back with Jesse. Then I pushed.

The world jumped to the right. I was sitting in a different place. I looked down at my hands. They were bigger and darker. I drew in a sharp breath. The noise sounded different in my head. I looked sideways and saw…myself. My eyes were shut and I was slumped sideways in my chair. I leaped up, knocking the chair over. My heart pounded, but the rhythm was wrong. I panicked.

A hand landed on my shoulder and I yelped. It was reflex-I took that mind, too. I was seeing the room from two different points of view. There were two of me, but only one, at the same time.

The other people-and aliens-in the room scrambled to their feet. The sudden movement scared me again, and then I had three, four, five, and six people. Then seven and eight and nine. My eyes looked in a dozen different directions all at once. I had two legs-no, four legs-no, a dozen. My hearts were thumping so hard they hurt. In panic, I saw my body, still slumped in the chair. I wanted to be back inside it. I wanted to be me again. I lunged for myself.

And then I was there. I opened my eyes and looked down at my hands. My hands. My arms. My body.

I looked up, shaking. The room was dead silent. Everyone was looking at me. Then a babble broke out as everyone started talking at the same time. One of the humans, a blond man, was shouting. The caterpillar waved its arms. Kendi looked stunned. I just huddled in my chair. They were angry. They were going to do something to me. I wanted to run.

Finally Grandfather Melthine quieted the room and got everyone to sit down again. He was the one who’d put a hand on my shoulder. His face was pale.

“That was…impressive, young Sejal,” he said. He wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his robe. “I think you made history today.”

I didn’t say anything.

“We’ll need to analyze this more closely later,” Melthine added. “We thought Brother Kendi was powerful because he can split his mind into two pieces in the Dream. But you, Sejal…well, your abilities go rather beyond that.”

I still didn’t say anything.

Grandfather Melthine took a deep breath. “Well. Mother Adept Araceil Rymar also reported that you can pull other people into the Dream. Is that correct?”

I nodded.

“Tell us about it in your own words.”

I did. It took some time. Kendi got me some water, and I was glad for it. I was still nervous. Everyone listened carefully, and they didn’t interrupt. I got the feeling they’d heard the story before and mentally kicked myself for not realizing that Kendi and probably Mother Ara had already told it to them.

When I was done, Melthine nodded. “Is there anything else you can do?”

I hadn’t told them about my empathy talent. I was going to, but then I changed my mind. I can’t say why. Eventually I’d have to tell someone, probably Kendi, but then I could say I forgot about it or that it was new. So I shook my head.

One of the Ched-Balaar chattered something from where he (she?) was squatting on the floor.

“Father Adept Ched-Farask wants to know more about this ability to bring people into the Dream,” Melthine told me. “Can you do it with anyone? Including non-Silent?”

“I don’t know,” I said truthfully.

“Have him try it with me,” said a new voice. Everyone’s head swung around and I twisted in my seat. Harenn was standing in the doorway. I wondered how she had known about the meeting and figured Kendi must have mentioned it to her.

“Harenn Mashib,” Grandfather Melthine said. “You weren’t invited here.”

Like that ever stopped Harenn. She walked straight up to the table as cool as an ice trader. “I volunteer to be a test subject,” she said, “to see if Sejal can take the non-Silent into the Dream.”

“Harenn-” Kendi said.

“I’ll try it,” I said suddenly. Until that moment, I hadn’t really liked Harenn. But now here she was, facing down a council of powerful people. And I also knew what she was going through. I had felt her panic and her pain for a few seconds. Harenn had told me how she was hoping to use the Dream to find her husband, the guy who’d kidnapped their kid and run off. I wanted to help.

“Sejal is too early in his training to enter the Dream unaccompanied,” Melthine pointed out. “He has been forbidden to do so.”

Harenn snorted behind her veil. “Do you honestly think that has stopped this boy? As good to leave an open box of sweets on a child’s bed and tell him he can only have one. He has entered the Dream often, you may be certain.”

Kendi turned to me. I couldn’t read his eyes. “Have you entered the Dream since I told you not to go there?”

And suddenly I was pissed. Sure, the Children of Irfan had gotten me off Rust, and sure, they were giving me an education and a place to live and some great clothes. It didn’t mean they owned me.

“Damn right I have,” I said. “It’s easy. I can get in and out like that.” I snapped my fingers. “Why shouldn’t I go?”

“Dammit, Sejal,” Kendi sputtered, “it’s dangerous. There’s something in the Dream that attacks Silent. You barely know how to create a body there. What if that thing in there hurt or killed you because you didn’t know what to do? What if you-”

I folded my arms, feeling stubborn. “You sound like my Mom.”

That shut Kendi up.

Anyway. There was more arguing and more people yelling at me, but I just sat there. Harenn talked a lot, too, and you can guess whose side she was arguing. Finally, they all decided that I should try to take Harenn into the Dream. Kendi and Grandfather Melthine would go with me.

We moved to another room with couches and more comfortable chairs. Only the human Silent and the caterpillar came with us-the others wouldn’t fit. I sat on a couch with my feet up and shut my eyes, not even waiting to see what Kendi and Melthine did. If I wanted to go into the Dream, I’d go. For a minute I wasn’t sure I could trance with all those people in the room and with me being so angry, but after a short while I was fine. Voices whispered just faintly around me. I breathed deep and reached for them.

I opened my eyes in the Dream.

I was in the apartment back on Rust. The place was dull and dingy compared to the monastery, and suddenly I didn’t want Kendi and Melthine there. But Kendi said each Silent creates a Dream environment. I thought a moment, then formed a picture in my head. I wanted to see it in front of me. I would see it in front of me.

And so it was. I was standing on a wide beach. White sand ran left and right as far as I could see. Reddish waves washed gently at the shore and a thick forest lay beyond the beach. Sea birds coasted by on the warm wind, and the sun shone overhead.

But not far off shore was that cracked chaos. It bubbled and boiled above the water, and just like last time, it called to me. I felt an overwhelming urge to jump into the ocean and swim toward it and even took a few steps toward the water.

I felt a ripple in the Dream, as if someone had thrown a rock into a pool I was standing in. I spun around and saw Kendi and Melthine on the sand.

“Nice beach,” Kendi commented.

I nodded without speaking. If he hadn’t shown up, I would have jumped into the ocean.

“It’s getting bigger.” Grandfather Melthine pointed at the darkness. “And it makes me feel nauseated.”

I felt the pain in the darkness. It also sounded sweet and wonderful, but I didn’t say anything.

“Can you feel Harenn?” Kendi asked. “Can you feel her the way you felt me that one time?”

I shut my eyes and felt around with my mind. With a start I saw that there were millions, billions, even trillions of minds everywhere. Every grain of sand, each drop of water, every leaf on every tree was a mind. Kendi had told me that the Dream was…what was the word? A gestalt. A combination of all the minds in the universe. But I hadn’t really known what he meant until that moment. Each mind went about its business, some happy, some sad, most a jumble of emotions. I could feel them skitter around me, but at the same time they weren’t moving. It was really weird.

Some of them I recognized. Gretchen, Ben, Mother Ara, Trish. And Harenn. She was around, too. I remembered how I’d called for Kendi when I got scared the first time I came into the Dream. I called for Harenn and reached for her. I touched her, and I pulled.

Something flickered in the air the beside me like a bad hologram. Harenn stood on the beach for a tiny moment. Then she vanished.

I was suddenly tired. All my energy left me, and my legs felt like rubber. I shut my eyes and let go of the Dream.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the couch room. Everyone was looking at me. Melthine was lying on a couch and Kendi was standing in the corner with a stick under his knee. That was really strange, but I was too tired to think much about it. Where had the stick come from, anyway? Harenn was blinking at me like she was dizzy. I still felt tired.

“Are you okay?” I asked her.

“I am…uncertain,” Harenn said. “I feel disoriented. One moment I was in this chair, then I was…on a beach? Then I was in my chair again.”

“I couldn’t hold you there,” I said. “You slipped through my fingers.”

“It failed, then,” Harenn said in a flat, disappointed voice.

“The fact that you were there at all is significant,” the blond Adept said from his own chair. He sounded awed. “This is astounding. A non-Silent in the Dream.”

I tried to stand up, but ended up falling back onto the couch from dizziness.

“I think my student needs rest,” Kendi said beside me. He must have come out of the Dream and pulled the strange stick out from under his knee. “I’ll take him back to his room. We can talk more about this later.”

Grandfather Melthine blinked his eyes open. He sat up in time to catch Kendi’s last remark. It seemed like he was going to object, then he looked at me.

“Take him home,” he said. “And we certainly will discuss this again.”

Kendi brought me back to the dormitory. We didn’t talk much. I think he was still a little angry at me for going into the Dream without his permission. Tough.

Not that it matters now.

Anyway. I wasn’t tired anymore when we got back to my room, but I wanted to be alone, so I let Kendi think I was exhausted. He left me sitting on my bed.

“Attention! Attention!” the computer said. “A delivery is waiting at the front desk.”

Probably my clothes and stuff. I was about to go downstairs and get them when someone knocked. I thought maybe Kendi had dropped something in my room or something, but when I opened the door, an old man was standing there. He wore white, and his clothes had that expensive, silky look I recognized from some of my jobbers. He also looked familiar. White hair, blue eyes, some wrinkles, sharp nose.

The train. It was the rude guy old man from the train.

“Hello, Sejal,” he said. “May I come in?”

Too startled to say no, I let him in and shut the door. He sat on the corner of the bed farthest from me, keeping his clothes wrapped tight around him, as if he was afraid to let them touch me.

“Who-?” I began.

“My name is Padric Sufur,” he said. “I want to make you a proposition.”

He was a jobber? “I don’t do that anymore,” I told him. “So you can forget it.”

The man blinked, and I could hear the tiny click of his eyelids. “You don’t-oh! No, no. Nothing like that.” He blinked again. “I’m the head of Sufur Enterprises, and I have some information about the Children of Irfan that might interest you. About Mother Araceil Rymar, in particular.”

“What information?” I asked, tensing. This guy was setting off alarms left and right and I wished I hadn’t let him in. If I shouted for help, would someone come?

“Mother Araceil has orders from Empress Kalii herself,” Sufur said. “Orders to kill you.”

The words were so strange, I didn’t know how to react. “Kill me?” I said stupidly.

“Yes.” He shifted on the bed, edging away from me. “The Empress ordered Mother Araceil to watch you and decide if you are a danger to the Indepencdence Confederation. If she-Araceil-decides you are a danger, she is to kill you.”

“She wouldn’t,” I said hotly, but something stirred in my gut.

“Perhaps. Perhaps not. But those were the Empress’s orders.”

My face was hot and my hands were cold. I remembered the way Mother Ara would look at me, as if she were sizing me up. I remembered how the Unity had sent warships to try to bring me back.

“How do you know this?” I demanded. “Who the fuck are you?”

“I told you. I’m Padric Sufur. We touched on the train, so you know I’m Silent. I touched you-” Did he shudder? “-to make sure you were the person I was looking for.”

My fingers were twisting my sweater like snakes. I was getting mad and found myself lapsing into my Jesse personality, the one I used with jobbers. “So you’re Silent. Big fucking deal. Everyone around this shithole is Silent. How the hell does that tell you that Moth-that Ara’s supposed to gash me?”

“I have connections,” he said simply. “Mother Araceil Rymar has made a number of reports about you to Empress Kan maja Kalii. Twice Araceil possessed a Silent slave so they could meet in person to talk about you. In person with the Empress, Sejal. What does that tell you?”

“That she’s-” And then I stopped, my Jesse instincts screaming at me to shut up. People love to talk. After I gave a jobber a mind-shattering orgasm, some of them would get weepy and want to blab about this or that. I was always surprised about what they were willing to tell a complete stranger. Why did they want to blather so much? After I broke down and cried in the restaurant with Kendi, I could kind of understand it, but Kendi had saved my life. Twice. This guy was a total stranger I didn’t owe anything. So I shut up.

It didn’t stop my mind from racing, though. Assuming Sufur wasn’t lying-and my gut was said he was telling the truth-what did Mother Ara meeting with the Empress tell me?

It told me that Harenn was right. I was important, everyone wanted a part of me, and they’d rather I was dead than end up with someone else.

When I didn’t say anything, Sufur went on. “If you stay here, Sejal, they’ll kill you.”

The room was quiet. The French doors were still closed, keeping out the sound of breezes in the tree, though I saw green leaves fluttering beyond the glass. Footsteps trotted past my door and faded. I forced myself to think clearly before I said anything.

“You said if Ara decided I was a danger to the Independence Confederation, she was supposed to do it. How do you know she’s decided I’m a danger?”

“Premier Yuganovi is very upset that you slipped away.” Sufur calmly smoothed his trousers, as if he had said the weather would change. “The Unity’s going to declare war.”

“War? Over me?”

Sufur nodded. “You’re the most valuable piece of property in history. You possess the power to topple empires and destroy governments. The Unity wants you to work for them. The Empress wants you to work for the Independence Confederation. Other governments will want you as well. Empress Kalii isn’t stupid. She’ll see-has seen-that that she’ll be fighting wars she can’t possibly win. Sure, after a few years of training you’ll probably be able to wipe out entire civilizations, but the Empress has to deal with the Unity now.”

“You’re exaggerating,” I said. “I couldn’t wipe out a civilization.”

“You could make one person push all the right buttons and easily do the job,” Sufur countered.

“I’d never do something like that!”

“The Empress doesn’t know that. Premiere Yuganovi doesn’t know that. And people change, Sejal. Who knows what you’ll do in six years, or even six months, given the proper conditioning?” He crossed his arms. “No, Sejal. You’re too dangerous for any government to let you live for long.”

I started to protest. Kendi wouldn’t hurt me. The Children of Irfan had saved me, gone through a lot of trouble for me, even died for me. They wouldn’t kill me after all that.

But my Jesse voice was whispering other things. Would they have come for me if it weren’t for my special Silence? Would they have offered to take me off-planet if I were normal? Would Kendi have saved my life if I’d been an ordinary tricker like Jesse? I knew the answer. It wasn’t me they wanted. It was my power.

I was starting to tear up, which made me mad. “Okay, so I believe you. What do you want? And don’t give me any bullshit that you want to save my life.”

Sufur chuckled. “Oh no, young Sejal. Unlike the Children and the Unity, I won’t lie to you or pretend I’m talking to you for anything but selfish reasons. All humans are selfish. I’m just willing to admit it.”

“Okay, then. Talk.”

“Come with me. I’ll give you sanctuary and I’ll pay you well.” He sounded like a jobber again.

“And what do you want me to do?”

Sufur wet his lips as if he were nervous. “I want you to end war.”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “Just like that, huh? You want me to end war?”

“You can do it, Sejal,” Sufur said seriously. “Or at least, we can do it.”

“How?” I asked, deciding to play along.

“What would happen,” he said, “if there was a war and nobody came?”

Now I was getting nervous again. Sufur was starting to sound like a jay-head who’d had too much juice. “I don’t know,” I stalled.

He sighed and shook his head. “It’s a rhetorical question. Look, you can possess people. More than one at a time?”

I nodded despite the earlier advice from my Jesse voice.

“What if you got into a war, possessed the soldiers on both sides, and stopped them from fighting? What if you possessed the commanders and made them give surrender orders? What if you possessed the government leaders and made them sign peace treaties?”

“It’d work at first,” I said, “until I let go. Then everyone would be back to fighting again.”

“Not if they knew that you’d possess them again. And again and again until they gave it up.”

“I’m one person,” I protested. “I couldn’t possibly do all that.”

“You wouldn’t need to.” Sufur grinned like a cat. “It would only take the threat that you might do it. The Unity is willing to go to war over the mere threat that you might do something it doesn’t like, right?”

“That’s what you said.”

“And they’re declaring war because you’re, in theory, aligning yourself with the Independence Confederation.”

“Right,” I said, wondering exactly where this was going.

“I’m not aligned with any government.” He thumped himself on the chest. “If you come with me, the Unity-and everyone else-won’t have a reason to declare war. You’ll be neutral-and in a position to stop other wars from breaking out later.”

I shook my head. This was a lot of information coming at me all at once. I wandered over the French doors, and opened them a crack. Fresh, cool air blew into the room. I poked my head outside. A small group of other students, most of them older than me, were talking a ways up the common balcony. Good. If had to yell for help or make a fast exit, someone would hear me. I felt calmer now. Sufur didn’t seem to be a whack-head, but you can never tell for sure.

“Look,” Sufur said from my bed, “do you know what happened to your mother and father when the Unity invaded Rust?”

I turned. “What do you know about them?”

“I’ve done my research,” he said. “Your parents are Prasad and Vidya Vajhur, though your mother later changed her name to Dasa. They ran a small cattle farm not far from the city of Ijhan. When the Unity invaded, it dropped biological weapons that wiped out Rust’s food supply. Famine spread everywhere. Your parents, like a lot of people, headed for the city, hoping to find relief. There was none. A sea of people starving to death in their own filth and sewage surrounded Ijhan, and your parents were among them. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people died thanks to the Unity’s little war.”

“Where did you hear this?” I demanded, though I wanted to hear more. This was the stuff Mom never talked about.

“Your parents, however,” Sufur continued as if I hadn’t said anything, “did not die. They knew that they carried the genes for Silence, though they weren’t Silent themselves. When their position became hopeless, they signed a contract with Silent Acquisitions, Inc.”

“I know that,” I interrupted. “How do you know it?”

“I told you-I have many contacts.” He took out a white silk handkerchief and passed it over his forehead. Did I make him nervous? “Later, the Unity took over your parents’ contract and forced them to hand over their first two children.”

“I know that, too,” I interrupted. “So what?”

“War destroyed your family, Sejal. It starved them and forced your parents to give your brothers away. War allowed the Unity to conquer your homeworld and drain it dry. Because of war, you were forced to live in an impoverished slum all your life.”

“More contacts?” I said.

Sufur nodded. “More contacts. You’ll have to get used it, I’m afraid. Word about you is already spreading. No matter what choices you make, your life will under constant scrutiny.” He stood up and leaned against the door frame. “Ultimately, it all comes down to this, Sejal: Araceil Rymar has been ordered to kill you. The Empress gave her the order before either of them had even met you. Even if Araceil decides to let you live-and I very much doubt that will happen-do you really want to stay in a place where such orders are given so casually?”

I didn’t answer because there was only one to give. Suddenly I was angry again. Earlier today things were looking good. I had new clothes, my own place to live, and people who liked me. This jay-head was taking it all away.

“Why the hell should I go with you?” I snapped. “I don’t have any proof of who you are or what you’ll do to me once I leave. How do I know you haven’t been sent to kill me?”

Sufur raised his hands, and I realized I had pretty much said I was going to leave. “You have the power to make me do-or not do-anything you want. How could I hurt you? And if I were going to kill you, wouldn’t I just do it instead of talking all this time?”

I thought about it for a while. I didn’t want to go, but I knew I couldn’t stay.

“Can Kendi come?” I said before I could stop myself.

“Do you really think he’d want to?”

I thought about it. “No,” I sighed.

“Let’s go then,” Sufur said gently. “I have a ship.”

And then my Jesse personality spoke up. Always get the money up front. “We haven’t talked terms yet.”

Sufur smiled. “Altruism isn’t enough?”

If he was thinking I didn’t know what altruism meant, he was wrong. “I can’t eat altruism. And you don’t look exactly hungry yourself.”

“Fair enough.” He scratched his head. “How about this, then. Just to show you I mean what I say, I’ll give you a salary and no duties. You do what you want. If you don’t like what’s going on, you can take your money and leave, no strings attached.”

I eyed him with heavy suspicion. “What’s the catch?”

“There isn’t one. I’m just willing to bet you’ll want to hang around.”

“How do you know I won’t steal you blind?”

“Two reasons,” he replied instantly. “The first is that people who plan to steal me blind rarely ask that question. The second is that I’ve studied your history. With what you can do, you could have set yourself up pretty well, even on Rust. You didn’t, and I think it’s because you’re not the kind of person who would steal.”

I didn’t like the fact that he had me so well pegged. “So what’s the salary?”

“Let’s see.” Sufur pulled a computer pad from his pocket and started punching at it. “The Unity uses kesh. One kesh converts to point two four freemarks. So that would be…All right. Yearly salary of two and a half million freemarks. That’s about ten million kesh. Full medical care and your own flitcar.”

Jesse froze my face before I could show my reaction. Ten million kesh was a truckload. Or it was back on Rust.

Never take the first offer, Jesse whispered. I managed a sneer despite the fact that my heart was racing. “Ten million?” I scoffed. “How much do you think I’d get if I just put myself up for auction?”

“Fifteen million.”

“Thirty,” I said. “And I want my own house. With a swimming pool. And all the other stuff you said. And five million extra up front as a bonus.”

“Done.”

Idiot, Jesse said. He agreed too fast. That means he thinks you’re a bargain.

But I didn’t care. Thirty-five million in one year, plus a house and a flitcar. I’d never see a slum from the inside again. I crossed the room and stuck out my hand. Sufur looked at it for a long moment, then slowly brought out his own hand. His handshake was quick and limp and he pulled back as soon as he could. What was with him?

I got my flute and the computer button with my journals on it while Sufur’s pad wrote up a contract. We both thumbed it, and that was that. I looked around the room that hadn’t even had time to become mine. As we were heading out the door, I took off the ring Kendi had given me and dropped it on my desk in plain sight. When we left, I made sure the door was open a crack to make it clear I was gone.

“Aren’t we going to go out the back?” I said as we headed down the main hallway. “This leads to the front desk.”

“So?” Sufur replied. “I haven’t broken the law.”

Oh. “In that case…” I stopped at the front desk and picked up my delivery. I had been right-it was my clothes and other stuff. I made a mental note to transfer money to the Children of Irfan to pay for them. Like Sufur said, I’m not a thief.

We rode the monorail back to the spaceport. Sufur made sure there was a seat between us when we sat down. Then he put a finger to his ear and muttered to the empty air. I figured he was talking to his ship.

It was weird. Here I was on the monorail again. I was going backward, retracing the route that had brought me here. I had been happy coming in. I was depressed going out. I came in with a friend. I went out with a stranger. I came in poor. I went out rich.

Anyway. Sufur’s ship at the spaceport was small but luxurious. The hallways were thickly carpeted and the walls were painted with murals and frescos. It smelled new. The elevator was a floating disk that hummed up through a hole in the ceiling/deck to the bridge. There were only two chairs, and their backs were to us.

“Are we cleared to take off?” Sufur said.

One of the chairs spun partway around. My jaw dropped and I almost lost the hold on my packages. Sitting in the chair was Chin Fen.

“We’re all clear,” he said.

The other chair, a shorter one, also spun. An alien was in it, sort of like a giant brown spider. It waved its legs and antennae.

“Translation,” said a computer voice. “I’ve been monitoring newscasts. Nothing so far.”

“Good,” Sufur said. “Let’s go, then.”

“What the hell is he doing here?” I burst out, pointing at Fen.

Fen laughed. “You think I’m going to stay?”

“Didn’t Kendi say you were under house arrest or something?” I asked.

“I was,” Fen said. He cracked wrinkled knuckles. “It was low-level security. The monks watching me were nice enough. They thought the job was perfunctory, and until a couple hours ago, it was. I caught them off-guard. They’ll wake up in the morning and get yelled at by their supervisor, I’m sure.”

I folded my arms. “You were feeding information about me to Ara and to Sufur.”

“I said I had contacts,” Sufur put in mildly. “Let’s take off.”

Fen and the spider turned back to their consoles. Sufur stepped back onto the elevator, which started to hum downward. I jumped on it beside him and grabbed his arm. He drew away, but I didn’t let go.

“I thought you said there was nothing illegal going on,” I snarled. “Fen’s a spy.”

“Not as far as the Confederation is concerned,” Sufur said tightly. “Let me go, please.”

His voice was hard. I let go, and he smoothed his white sleeve. The elevator disk reached the next deck down, and Sufur went into some kind of lounge. Wide round portholes looked out at the spaceport and more thick carpets covered the floor. Half a dozen adjustable bed-couches were arranged around the room. Sufur sat in one. I took another.

“What do you mean?” I pressed. “Either Fen’s a spy or he isn’t.”

Sufur lay back on his couch and stared at the ceiling. I couldn’t read his expression. “I sent Fen to the Unity as my mole about five years ago, though I’m sure he told you and Mother Araceil that he’d been there longer. He’s adept at digging up information, even classified secrets. If he told Araceil half of what he told me, I’m surprised she didn’t get suspicious at what a mere clerk was able to uncover.”

My stomach dropped as the ship lifted. The ships visible through the portholes fell away were replaced with blue sky.

“I’m sure the Unity would love to talk to Fen,” Sufur continued. “The Confederation, on the other hand, should be grateful to him. He was paid to feed information to me, not the Children or the Empress. The Confederation benefitted from his work free of charge. In any case, spying on the Unity isn’t a crime in the Confederation, so they can’t level charges against him.”

“Why the hurry then?”

Sufur shrugged. “Courts are the same everywhere. It would take months for them to come to this conclusion. I’m just cutting through the red tape.”

The sky oustide darkened and stars salted the blackness. A moment later, the view exploded into slipspace color for a split second before the portholes darkened to hide it. Sufur got up.

“I have things to attend to,” he said. “You’ll find I prefer communicating with my employees by vid or in the Dream, so that’s probably how you’ll hear from me next. I’ll set up a bank account for you and make the other arrangements. Good day.”

And he was gone.

So now I’m updating my journal on his ship. I don’t even know what it’s called. The computer says we’ll reach our destination-whatever it is-in six days, two hours.

I think I’ll spend a lot of it in the Dream.