Horizons

TWENTY-FOUR

AHNI CLIMBED OUT OF THE SKIMMER ATTHE FAMILY DOCK, feeling as if she had been absent for weeks rather than a handful of days. The thick tropical heat, rich with scents of green and rot oppressed her in a way it never had before, smothering her in a blanket of memory. She made her way to her father’s apartments. He expected her. Plates of delicacies covered a low table in his elegant rooms.

Her father was waiting for her. Ahni accepted an eggshell cup of pale, clear tea from him, complimented him on the tea and the age of the pot and sipped it. The flowery fragrance brought the scent of home to her nostrils. They grew tea on the platforms but it would not taste like this. Every tea tasted of its growing place.

“I am impressed with your competence in the matter of the World Council vote. I have studied the small points of leverage you used to persuade uncertain voters.” He nodded. “You used a minimum amount of force to divert a mountain.”

Ahni bowed her head.

“I am pleased with my choice of heir. I am old. It is time to permit my successor to take over the family’s business.”

“Ah, but you will live forever, Father.” Ahni raised her eyebrows. “I have looked at the results from the private research that you so generously fund.”

“They are not certain,” her father said smoothly. “But you are well informed. Those discoveries are closely guarded. You are very good.” He smiled and selected a small, plump dumpling. “I value the sharp tool.”

Ah, she thought. Father, you overlooked the heir you wanted. You married her, and hung a sharp sword on the wall to rust. It cut you and poisoned your blood.

“I am sorry,” she said gently. “I have another path to walk. I have committed myself to the orbital platforms.”

“A child’s adventure.” He waved her words away. “Our family’s path lies down here. Not in some castle in the clouds that has no future. Your duty is to your family.”

Ahni swallowed a sigh. You never looked beyond the world you created, she thought. You did not choose to see reality. That made you a ready tool for my mother’s hand. “I am sorry, Honored Father.”

She bowed, deeply. “I have chosen my path. I can walk alongside Huang family or I can walk it alone, but I cannot stay here and do as you ask.” She pulled a data sphere from her tunic, handed it to him with a formal bow. “This is my final gift to you.”

“What is it?” he snapped.

“The gift of clear sight.” She stood and left his chamber and he did not call her back.

She crossed the courtyard to her mother’s apartments. Her mother sat on the embroidered cushions before her low table, a pot of tea steaming gently on it. Ahni wondered suddenly what had happened to the priceless Qin teapot Li Zhen had given her. She had left it in the hotel room on NYUp. Her mother inclined her head without speaking and Ahni sat down across from her.

“The Council votes went as you wished them to.” Her mother stressed the word “wished.” She offered Ahni a cup with both hands. “Your talents have been wasted for too long.”

Ahni turned her head aside, refusing the tea. Her mother set it down on the table, lifted her own cup thoughtfully. “Why are you still angry, daughter? You come here with the taste of power in your mouth.

Tell me that you are not hungry for more?” She smiled slyly.

“Tell me first how you became pregnant by Chou Zhen.”

“Ah.” For a moment her mother hesitated, the cup at her lips.”We were young.” She sipped her tea.

”There was never the slight possibility that I could leave your father and marry him. It was… an afternoon whim.”

“Does he know? Chou Zhen?”

“That you are his? Of course not.” Her mother’s eyes flashed.

“Did you think he would shrug you off? No.” She shook her head. “He believes what The Huang believes. That an egg slipped into my womb after Xai had been implanted. My doctor knew, of course, but he had reasons of his own to keep this secret for me. And he died soon after.” She smiled.

“How did you plan to use me?” Ahni asked softly.

“If you know this much, I have no doubt that you can surmise my intentions,” Her mother said coldly.

“You would make him proud. Did you inform him?”

“No.” Ahni met her gaze. “Although Li Zhen knows. I do not know what he will choose to do with that knowledge.”

“What is your price?” Her mother smiled gently. “I assume a price lies beneath this conversation.”

“Oh, there is more yet to discuss.” Ahni held her mother’s gaze. “I had an agent acquire details of the Gaiists and their involvement with world politics. Enough to make their purposes clear.”

“I told you… a ready tool.” Her mother waved her hand dissmissively. “Perhaps they do lust for world power, but what has that to do with me?” She smiled. “I am no member.”

“Oh yes, you are.” Ahni smiled gently. “A very talented synthesist uncovered your tracks. You were good but he is better. And your son was not the naive tool you believed. His private blackmail file confirms it. The proof will be enough to convict you of conspiracy to commit terrorism before the World Council. It will be more than enough for Wen Huang… along with my DNA scan.”

Her mother rose to her feet, pale. “I offered you the planet.”

“Is that what you offered Xai?”

“Yes,” her mother said simply. “But that was a lie. He was never more than a tool. Like the Gaiists.”

“Did you send him into Tania’s bed?”

“I suggested it to Tania.” Her mother lifted her chin. “You will not do this. You are not a fool, to walk away from what I offer.”

“I have ethics, Mother,” Ahni said softly. “That makes me unfit to walk your path.”

With a sudden, savage gesture, her mother flung her tea cup across the room, and as Ahni’s eyes followed its shattering, she sprang.

Ahni froze, the razor edge of a dagger’s blade against her throat. “Killing me will not save you, Mother,”

she whispered. “He already has the data. He is reading it now. A skimmer is waiting at the dock, if you want to run. I will not stop you.” A white-hot thread of pain crossed her throat as her mother’s hand trembled. Ahni closed her eyes as hot wetness crawled down her throat and between her breasts.

Suddenly her mother laughed and stepped back. “You are so prepared to die. Like a Buddhist monk You are weak.”

“You are evil,” Ahni breathed

Her mother spat on the table between them. She smiled, blood red lips stretching over her even teeth.

“Live with my blood on your heart.” She plunged the dagger into her throat.

Ahni stumbled backward as blood splattered her face, spraying crimson dots across the pale wall as her mother’s body spasmed and fell, her heels beating briefly on the tiles. Ahni covered her face with her hands, her mother’s blood and her own, sticky on her skin. Finally the tears came.

And tore her apart.