Shadowkill

##

The door to Sai’s office had a dirty mirror in the upper half, a mirror that turned into one-way glass once they were inside.

Rose looked over her shoulder, snorted. “Elegant.”

Kikun shrugged. “Whatever works.”

She wrinkled her nose, set her hands on her hips and looked around.

A grayish light filtered through the ancient dust on the windows, enough to show them the sagging benches lined up against a side wall, the broad armchair in an inner corner where the guard sat with his ottoshot across his knees; its seat cushion was worn and shabby, molded to the shape of his broad butt. Beside the door into the inner office, a bulky deskset pouched through the wall with a grill across a hatch. During the day the woman sat behind that grill, readouts at their elbows, and did their needlework while they waited for someone to comcall or walk in.

Rose inspected the door to the inner office, fished a readout from her toolbag and ran it along the jamb; when she was finished, she looked at the result, sniffed with satisfaction. Over her shoulder she said, “Watch my back. I don’t know how long this’s going to take.” She keyed the door, went through it, and settled at one of the readouts.

Kikun watched her start work, then went to squat in a corner by the outer door, humming hymns that were so old even the gods had forgotten who made them.

Jadii-Gevas the antelope spirit ran clicka-clack through the empty stinking corridors, his black eyes wild, his breath wet before him.

Kikun quivered with him, shuddered with his fear, looked through his eyes, searching, searching for motion, the thing that Jadii-gevas was created to find, find and flee. The antelope spirit shuddered and fled as wind rattled a window, his hooves clacked on the bare wood floors like hail as he fled again when a rat came trundling from a pile of anonymous litter.

Spash’ats the Bear sat in a corner of the room, big and dark, shining amber eyes. He yawned, opened his mouth wide enough to swallow Kikun, snapped it closed, tooth-sliding against tooth. He was shadow without substance but his power was like perfume, it lingered even when the wearer was mostly absent. He was warning, he was reproach, he was the summoner.

Kikun shuddered whenever he looked into that corner; he tried not to look, but he couldn’t keep his head from turning, he couldn’t keep his eyes away.

He was supposed to be watching for intruders, he was supposed to be guarding Autumn Rose, not harrowing his soul for the edification of his gods, gods he couldn’t believe in even when he was looking at them. He kept looking at them. He let Jadii-Gevas do the watching.

The soft sound of Rose’s fingertips came to him along with a faint flickering greenish glow from the screen. She was concentrating so hard it was like a skin of glass was pulled around her, glass tough as ship steel.

He sighed. He missed Shadith; she understood things that Rose never would because Rose didn’t want to understand them. He spent a moment wondering where Shadow was and what she was doing right now-then was jerked from his reverie by the challenge roar of Jadii-Gevas…

Antelope Spirit reared, huge and dark, antlers like naked trees, eyes red, Jadii-Gevas reared, obsidian hooves hanging over the head of the man coming unconcerned down the corridor, coming toward the office…

Kikun whistled a brief warning to Rose, dropped flat against the wall, the stunner ready.

There was a form on the far side of the glass, the rattle of a key in the lock. The door opened.

Kikun fired.

The man jerked, shuddered, dropped.

Xumady the Otter clashed his teeth and giggled, a high whinny that scratched at Kikun’s ears and called a lump into his throat. Down among the dead men, Xumady said to him. You’ve a corpse to play with, Nai.

Kikun cursed the trickster in the reduplications of his natal langue, the agglutinations. He didn’t want to believe it, but he’d felt the spirit go out of the man and he saw cold and empty flesh lying on the shabby rug. With a last flicker of hope, he dropped to a squat beside the body, caught hold of the nearest wrist, tried to find a pulse.

Nothing.

He scowled at the stunner, held it close to his eyes so he could see the setting. Minimum stun. The lowest notch. “Rose,” he whispered.

No answer. She was so tied into what she was doing she didn’t know what was happening out here.

“Rose!”

She made an impatient sound, looked up. “What? I’m just getting somewhere, Kuna. Hold on a minute, will you?”

“No. There’s a problem. I need you.”

She swore, worked a moment over the pad, then came through the door. “So? You stunned him, I hope.”

“Yes. I did. But he’s dead.”

“What?” She strode across to him, stirred the body with her toe. “Did you change the setting?”

“No. Look. He tossed the stunner to her.

She examined it, scowled down at the man. “All right. So why’s he dead? Or is he?” She dropped to her knees, held out the stunner. “Here, take this thing.” She pressed her fingers up under his jaw. “Z’ Toyff. They don’t come deader. Miserable luck, he must’ve been one of those extra sensitives. You don’t happen on them often, goerta b’rite.” She checked her ringchron, passing her hand across her eyes. “Yes. Who is he?”

“Don’t know. I suspect he’s Sai. He’s got keys. What are we going to do with him?”

She pressed the heels of her hands hard against her eyes. For a moment she didn’t say anything, just knelt there as if she were praying, though he suspected what was going through her head had nothing to do with prayer.

She straightened, got to her feet. “Another half hour and I’ll have the Mimishay file. I was going to go for Black House, too, but might as well forget that. He can stay where he is until I’m finished. We’re not likely to have more visitors. Or are we?”

“No. I don’t know. Probably not.”

“Mm. This building’s right on the bay, there must be windows looking out over the water?”

“Yes. Just drop him out? Like he was garbage?”

“He’s beyond feeling it, Kuna.”

“It’s not respectful.”

“I don’t know him, why should I respect his corpse? It’s our skins, Kuna. And not just ours. What about your friend Shadith? If we get topped, what happens to her?”

He moved uneasily. “I hear.”

“Right, then.” She transferred her scowl from him to the body. “Jorkhead. Middle of the night…” She swung round and stalked into the inner office.

Kikun heard the squeak of the chair as she sat, the patter of her fingertips, saw the unsteady light from the screen chasing shadows across the wall beside him. He sighed, caught hold of Sai’s shoulders and tugged him out of the doorway, laid him against the wall.

Xumady giggled and danced a triumph about and around the dead man.

Spash’ats gloomed in his corner and piled his silent demands on Naiyol Hanee called Kikun: Honor the dead. Honor YOUR dead.

Jadii-Gevas the antelope spirit ran clicka-clack through the empty stinking corridors, his black eyes wild, his breath wet before him.

Watch for me, Kikun told Antelope the Bear. Watch for me.

Dance for me, Kikun told Otter. Guide, he told ’Gemla Mask, suddenly there.

He knelt beside the dead man and sang a Going-home for him.

We drink from different rivers now.

O stranger, O enemy

We always have.

Surprised from life

Your heartsoul dances on a dry plateau

Cries out to me: Why?

O stranger, O enemy

I do not know.

Loudly your voice calls:

You sent me

Show me the way.

You leap past the moon

You run among the stars

You rush to me crying out

Bring me rest

I hear you

O stranger, O enemy

My hands draw the double spiral

Draw it in the air

Remember the spiral

O stranger, O enemy

Let your feet remember and run it

Look neither to the right nor to the left

Hoz’zha-dayaka lies before you

Garden of the Blessed

Run, then rest

O stranger, O enemy

Do not let anger snare your feet

Hold you from the blessed

Go quickly and do not remember your death

Or he who gave it unasked

May Shizhehoyu Father of all Bless you

And give you rest.

’Gemla Mask hovered over the dead man, drawing the spirit from his body, then danced ahead of the wild-eyed ghost, teasing him on and on until the ghost ran without prodding, ran and forgot what was, drew ahead of ’Gemla and vanished.