Winning Colors

Chapter Ten

Raffa wandered around the street market, but caught no sight of the king, or clone, or whoever that had been. She couldn’t see far anyway, past the colorful awnings and dwarf flowering trees, the little clusters of booths strung with banners. Finally, when her stomach informed her it was lunchtime, she followed her nose to a booth where a deft-fingered man wrapped spirals of meat and bread dough on sticks, and grilled them. Next to that booth, another sold fruit punches; Raffa picked something called omberri, which she had never had before.

She chose a bench under one of the nonflowering trees—she had noticed the bees humming among flowers—and worked her way down the meat and bread spirals. Her omberri punch had tartness enough to be refreshing on this warm day, without puckering her mouth. When she was through, she sat a few minutes with her legs stretched, watching the crowds of noontime shoppers. She had seen several booths she’d like to visit—shell jewelry, ribbon weaving worked into striking belts and vests—along with displays of native crafts that didn’t interest her. Even some pottery as ghastly as that made by Ottala Morreline’s crazy aunt.

Now that she’d lost track of the king, and had no idea where Ronnie and George were, she might as well spend the afternoon shopping. With that cheering thought, she worked her way through the booths, back to the one with the shell jewelry.

Then she saw the young man with the familiar way of carrying his head. It couldn’t be. Raffa ducked among the people, working her way closer. From behind, he still looked familiar. She edged her way around a booth to get a side view, and caught sight of his profile just an instant before he turned and looked her way. It was. Raffa opened her mouth to call out, just as he focussed on her and paled. He spun on his heel and darted away.

Raffa, startled, didn’t move until someone touched her arm and pointed out that she was blocking the whole aisle. “Sorry,” she said, still feeling blank. It had to be the prince. It had to be Gerel, who was supposed to be dead, and he was afraid to see her.

In one flash she saw the whole pattern of deceit. Gerel wasn’t dead; the man she had seen was the king, and he had come here to meet Gerel. King and prince . . . the phrase “government in exile” came to mind from her history studies. Lord Thornbuckle and Kevil Mahoney only thought they’d defeated the king—he was planning an insurrection.

Which meant that Ronnie and George, if they were still alive, were in mortal danger. Her skin tingled; she felt as preternaturally alert as she had that first night on the island. Did they know? Or were they about to walk into a conspiracy?

She set off slowly in the direction Gerel had fled. She didn’t expect to find him—she didn’t even want to find him—but she wanted to see what that part of the city was like.

Behind the street market, the streets resumed their normal, sedate appearance. Raffa noted that she was now on Bedrich, just crossing Cole. This was a residential area, five-story apartments lining both sides of the street, each with its own distinct facade. She saw a woman with three identical children in blue smocks . . . tried not to let herself think “clone.” They were children—and when they grinned up at her with identical sticky smiles, she couldn’t help grinning back. A yellow and white cat leapt off a window ledge in front of her, paraded to the curb with its tail in the air, and then sat to lick its paws.

This would get her nowhere but farther from the hotel. Gerel had been scared; he wouldn’t come back to see if she was in the neighborhood. Raffa slowed at the next street and glanced at the sign. Hari . . . and her tourist handcomp told her she would find nothing scenic if she kept going the same way. Just sore legs on the way back. She glanced around, and finally shrugged to herself. She might as well go back to the hotel, see if any messages had come in from the Institute about the pharmaceutical samples she’d turned in.

“These were not manufactured here. They were manufactured in modern equipment, using a process similar to, but not identical to, the one we developed. I can show you—here—” Raffa stared at the squiggly lines, and wished she had paid more attention to chemistry. “They’ve used an alternate synthetic route which we don’t like because it produces more waste. In addition, the isotope fractions suggest that the raw materials came from a source we don’t use. Although we do have one old sample that parallels it—from a mine in your territory. Do you know the Patchcock system?”

Raffa shook her head. “Not except for that mess when there was a war or something.” She realized that didn’t sound very intelligent, but after all she hadn’t been old enough to pay much attention.

“Well, before that we used to import a little from one of the planets there, and we still have reference samples. It’s not definitive, by any means, but the Patchcock system could be a source of the raw materials. I do know that there’s a sizeable pharmaceutical industry on Patchcock itself. The Morrelines, I believe, are major investors.”

Raffa wondered if those were the same Morrelines whose daughter Ottala had been such a pain at school. She and Brun had never liked Ottala that much—well, to be honest, at all—but she supposed she could look Ottala up when she got back to Familias space. “And the drugs themselves? Are they complying with your standards?”

“Aside from the fact that they’re breaking the licensing agreement by using an alternate process, those in the first sample submitted do meet our standards. The second sample, however, is subtly different. Do you read chromatographs?”

“No . . . I’m sorry.”

“Never mind. I’ll give you the complete analysis and references, of course . . . it’s important for your neurologists to have this, and understand the effects. In essence, the changes in the ring structures—the substitutions—are going to affect the quality of the rejuvenation, and this degradation will accumulate with repeated rejuvenations. It’s not as bad as the old method, and it should be reversible, but if your specialists have noticed some deterioration in memory and cognitive ability in some patients, this may explain it.”

“I know there’s concern,” Raffa said, without specifying whose concern.

“Frankly, I’m not surprised. It’s possible that this is merely sloppy quality control in manufacturing—if for instance the reaction in the fourteenth step is poisoned, it’s possible for that ring substitution to occur. But you must also consider industrial sabotage. Either a deliberate intent to adulterate the drugs to manipulate someone, or deliberate carelessness with the intent to maximize profits. Especially with the alternate process being used, it would be expensive to maintain the kind of quality we demand; the biologicals used to clean up the unreacted substrate can be difficult to extract.”

This was all gobbledygook to Raffa, except the part about sabotage and profit margins . . . she could see possibilities either way, and so, she was sure, could Lord Thornbuckle. “I think this is too important to depend on one messenger,” she said. She dug out the authorization card Lord Thornbuckle had given her. “Here’s the account number—”

Kemtre Lord Altmann, the former king of the Familias Regnant, limped slightly. His legs ached. He had walked more kilometers in the past week than in the year before. The Neurosciences Institute had refused to give him his sons’ address, had said they would not violate the privacy of their patients. When he tried to insist that he was their father, he had rights, they pointed out that under his law the clones had no legal identity at all.

“Here, they are eligible for full citizenship. The biological relationship is irrelevant, especially for clones derived not from division in the embryo but from tissue culture of an older individual. To the extent that these persons have a parent, it is the donor individual—their prime, as they called him.”

“But I was his father, too,” the king protested.

“And how many biological children did you father?”

“Three boys,” the king said.

“And what happened to them?” He could tell by the tone of the question that the interviewer already knew the answers.

“They’re dead,” he said, after a pause.

“All three. Somehow that doesn’t recommend you as a father.”

He wanted to say It’s not my fault, but he knew the other man thought it was.

“What we will do,” the man said, “is send word to the young men that you are here, and want to contact them. It is then their decision whether or not to seek you out.”

“But—but that’s not fair,” the king said. “What am I supposed to do if they won’t see me?”

“Go back to the Familias,” the man said, as if it were obvious.

“I can’t do that. I really want—I must see them. If I can only talk to them, I’m sure I can make them understand.”

The other man’s frown told him he had gone too far. “I rather doubt that—you haven’t convinced me. We will do as I said—tell them you are here, and let them decide. They are adults under our law; they’ve applied for full citizenship. They have the legal right to decide for themselves . . . and I should warn you that you have no legal right to harass them.”

He could hardly harass them when he couldn’t find them. He knew their alias, at least the one they had been given, and he had started with the Smiths in the city directory. The name was not so common here as in the Familias, but it was common enough. He had met Smiths who were bakers, who were attorneys, who worked in the city’s utility repair division, who were midwives and machinists. At least half of them were clones; he learned quickly not to explain his search. None would help him, not even to eliminate their clonesibs from the pattern. At this rate, it would take him years to find all the Smiths on this single planet.

“It’s not just your girlfriend,” Borhes said. “There’s some strange man looking for Smiths. Claims to be the king.” He took a gulp of his drink. “I didn’t dare get close enough to find out. If he saw me—”

“You should have changed your name,” George said helpfully. “At least you know that the Neurosciences people are keeping your secret.”

“There are lots of Smiths,” Borhes said. “And we didn’t really think anyone would come looking for us.”

“Surprise,” murmured George. Ronnie cocked an eye at him. Was George going to be odious again? Here? It was a bad time, he thought, eyeing the tension in every line of the clones’ bodies.

“Shut up,” said Andres. “I didn’t like you before, and I don’t like your idea of jokes.”

“We’re even,” George said. “I don’t like your idea of hospitality. This is silly, you know. Holding us like this doesn’t accomplish anything you want. You need new identities, so your father—sorry, Gerel’s father—doesn’t find you. You need to be free to move around; you need friends who will steer the king away from you, warn you when he’s near, all that. Instead, you have tied yourself down, and us up; you’re isolated, you don’t have friends—”

“I said, shut up!” Andres hit George, then looked at Borhes for his reaction. Borhes shrugged; Andres looked away.

“You could go on and kill us,” George said, undeterred by the blow that reddened his face. Ronnie felt a sneaking sympathy with Andres. “—But that wouldn’t help, either. You’d have to get rid of two fairly large, heavy corpses. Someone might see you, and although the Guernesi have been cooperative so far, I suspect that murdering us would strain their sympathy. It would certainly upset Raffaele, and since you don’t know her as well as I do, I warn you that she is likely to stick on Ronnie’s trail until she finds him, dead or alive.”

Ronnie felt himself blushing. “George, shut up!” he said. “You’re not helping.”

“Neither are you,” George said. “We’ve tried being nice. We’ve tried being polite, helpful, entertaining, amusing . . . and they’re still being idiots. Probably enough of that stupidity drug still in their systems—”

“It is not!” Borhes, this time, loomed over George with his hand raised.

In a tone of sweet reason that would have enraged angels, George persisted. “So I thought perhaps a bit of aggravation might make them wake up and think. If they can. Or listen to wiser minds, if they can’t.”

“We are not stupid!” That was both clones together, almost shouting.

“Right. Raise your voices. Yell and scream, and someone may call the police or whatever the Guernesi call them.”

“The Gard,” Borhes said, but more softly.

“Whatever. Listen, Borhes, this has gone on long enough. Raffa saw you—she’s going to start thinking and doing, a very dangerous combination. She probably thinks you’re Gerel, and if she knows the king’s here, she’s going to think it’s a conspiracy to regain the throne—”

“What? That’s crazy!”

“No crazier than what you’ve done. It’s what any person would think, believing that Gerel, who’s supposed to be dead, and the king are in the same place. She’s going to put that alongside our disappearance, and think we’re either dead or being held by the king and Gerel—or their supporters.”

“I haven’t seen her again,” Borhes said. George shrugged as well as he could.

“She’s not stupid, Bor. She can recognize danger when she sees it. And she can act. So the smartest thing for you to do is enlist us as allies—let us run some interference for you.”

“As if we could trust you!” Andres and Borhes exchanged glances and glared at their captives.

“It’s probably hard for clones to trust anyone outside the clone cluster,” George said. “Especially with the life you had. But someday you’ll have to, and you know us better than anyone else so far.”

“So what do you suggest?”

“What I said before. Get new identities. Simple disguises to start with, maybe, but probably plastic surgery or biosculpts later. Change your names legally. I’m sure the Neurosciences people will help.”

“But—we can’t go out until—”

“Oh, come now! This isn’t an adventure cube thriller. Wait until dark. Take a private cab. Call the Institute from here and make arrangements.” The clones looked at each other but said nothing. Ronnie held his breath. Would this work? “Or,” George began, and Ronnie wanted to smack him. Why couldn’t he be still a little longer? “Or, you could let one of us out to arrange disguises, transportation, even check at the Institute and make sure the king isn’t hanging around the front door. Find the back door.”

The clones laughed. “I don’t think so,” Andres said. “The other—perhaps you’re right; it does make sense to disguise ourselves and take other names. One of our therapists at the Institute did suggest that, but it seemed unnecessary then.”

“One thing to consider,” George said. “The king may not be the only one who wants to find you. If someone did want to set up a contender for a future throne, your tissues would be helpful. With or without your cooperation.”

“Well, we certainly can’t trust you,” Andres said. Then he pulled Borhes to the far side of the room, where they whispered in rapid Guernesi.

The outside felt large and dangerous; Ronnie was surprised to find himself flinching away from the bustling crowd on the sidewalk. He had loathed that small cramped room while he was in it, but now it seemed a safe haven. He understood why the clones were reluctant to go back out.

When he came to the street market, he half-hoped to see Raffa there. He bought himself a fruit pastry with the last coin in his pocket and ate it as he walked. No one seemed to notice him; no Raffa appeared, nor did the king. He wondered if Raffa had come across the king—he hoped not. That would really confuse things.

At a public combooth, he stripped his messages at the Travelers’ Directory. Eleven from Raffa, all with a reply code. He punched it in, and listened to a series of unmelodious buzzes and hisses, until a message came on: “Please leave a message,” followed by the three bleeps the Guernesi used to signal readiness to record.

Ronnie cleared his throat and tried to sound casual. “Hi, Raffa—it’s Ronnie. What are you doing here? Did your parents change their mind about the engagement? I’ll call again later.” He hoped he would. He hoped anyone intercepting that message would hear only a young man in love. He hoped she was all right.

Some dim memory of spy adventure stories suggested that he shouldn’t use the same booth for all the calls he planned to make. He walked across the street to another one, and called the Neurosciences Institute. The clones had told him which extension to ask for. The name they’d given him was out to lunch, though. He could leave a message or call later, he was told. He chose to call back. In the meantime, he could find out if the king was using his own name.

Raffa threw her packages on the table, and started to stretch out for a nap—then saw the blinking light on the comconsole. A message? Could it possibly be Ronnie and George? Her heart pounded; she took a breath and told herself to be calm. When she flicked replay and heard Ronnie’s voice, her vision dimmed for a moment and her heart pounded. The message was almost over by the time her vision cleared . . . and the idiot hadn’t left a reply code. Rage replaced whatever strong emotion had just swept her—she didn’t stop to think about it. The comconsole could capture the calling number and display its location; she looked at that, at the time the message had been left, and forgot about the nap.

She was two blocks away when it occurred to her that this might not be a wise move. Perhaps Ronnie hadn’t left a reply code because there were problems. Perhaps—she kept walking. Perhaps if she was quick enough, he would still be there.

The booth he’d called from, on the corner of Osip and Dixha, contained a thin woman and three active preschoolers, clearly a triad. Raffa looked around, ignoring the crafts, the food booths, and spotted another cluster of combooths on the far side of the market.

And there he was. Unharmed. Angled away from her, talking—his free arm moved, gesturing—and she was suddenly angry enough to wring that handsome neck. She strode across the market, ignoring everything, until she was right behind him. She could hear nothing—the Guernesi combooths had enviable privacy shields—but he had not blanked the booth visually. Raffa moved around until she could see his face . . . she wanted to see his face very badly, especially when he caught sight of her.

He turned paper white and grabbed at the booth rail. His lips shaped her name, then he held up a hand. He glanced away briefly, as if something said to him required a change in attention, then ended the connection and shot out of the booth as if kicked. “Raffa! How did you—I mean—Raffa!”

She had been prepared to give him a stony glare and a crisp demand for information, but his hug was more frantic than possessive. And it felt good.

“I was so worried,” she said, feeling her anger leak away, to be replaced by first relief than a wave of pure physical passion. Her legs felt odd; the ground seemed very far away. “I was afraid you were in trouble—you’ll never guess what I’ve seen.”

“Oh?” He was looking past her now, scanning the crowd as if he expected someone.

“Where’s George?” Raffa asked. “We need to warn him—did you know the ex-king was here?”

“Uh . . .”

“And the prince. Gerel, who was supposed to be dead? He’s not. I saw him. I think the king is in league with his son to take over the government again.”

“The king is not in league with his son. Gerel is dead.”

“But I saw him—and he recognized me and took off—”

“That wasn’t Gerel.” He was still looking beyond her, as if he expected to see someone he recognized.

“It was. I’m not blind, Ronnie—don’t think you can treat me like a little idiot.” She wanted to grab his chin and make him look at her, but a lifetime of prudence prevented her.

“You’re not blind, but that wasn’t Gerel.” Now he looked at her, but not with the look she wanted. “Think, Raffa—what have you seen since you’ve been here?”

“Clones,” Raffa said. “Gerel’s clone? Has the king come here to get another son, take over the government?”

“Not with them—him—” Ronnie smacked himself on the forehead. “Blast it . . . I’ve already screwed up. No, it’s not the king, or not exactly. The clones are from before, when Gerel was still alive. They doubled for him.”

“But that’s—” Illegal, she started to say, but with so much illegality going on, why not?

“And they don’t want to have anything to do with the Familias now,” Ronnie said. “They want to get on with their lives, here in a place where clones are normal, where they can be full citizens.”

“You’ve seen—you’ve talked to them. Is that where you’ve been?”

“Raffa, I can’t talk about it now. We have to get them some help, before the king finds them. I was just talking to the Neurosciences Institute; they’ll help them get new identities, but we have to help them get there without the king noticing. The Institute says he’s made a pest of himself, and they suspect he’s having the place watched.” He was scanning the crowd again; she could feel the tension in his arm.

“Let’s go, then. Take me to them.”

“I can’t do that!”

“Why not? You don’t think I’m going to let you walk back into trouble, do you? So that I can sit here and worry? Forget that.” She realized that she had clenched her hand on his arm; her voice had risen, and a few people were glancing their way. She let go and turned away, furious again.

“Raffa, I—I don’t want to take chances.” With you, he meant.

“And did I survive on the island just as well as you, or not?”

“You did, but—”

“But you’re afraid for me now. Who do you think will hurt me? Gerel’s clones?”

“They’re not quite . . . stable.”

“No, but I presume they’ve had a good upbringing.” She gave him another long look, noticing the shadows under his eyes, the tight-drawn skin. “You look hungry—who’s been feeding you?”

“They have—but they had to use our money too, and it’s been short.”

“Well, then. That’s my cue.” Raffa took his hand again and led him into the market. “I’ll be the traditional lady, the loaf bringer. Buttered toast does more than music to soothe the savage beast.” She was aware of butchering several traditional quotes, but in the meantime—she led Ronnie from one booth to another, loading his arms with sacks of pastries, loaves of bread, a fat round cheese, and a sausage of indecent length and girth. “Fruit,” she muttered then, and carried away a sack of bright gold pebbly-skinned fruits and a basket of dark purple berries. Ronnie quit arguing after she stuck a cheese-filled pastry in his mouth, and when she asked he led her away, to the far side of the market.

“Along this street,” he said finally. “You know you’re risking a lot.”

“Not my sanity, though,” Raffa said. “And that was about to disappear right along with you. This is much better. Besides, I have news about your original mission.”

“You do?”

“Yes, but I won’t tell you until we’re there. So hurry up.”

Ronnie led her up the narrow stairs, half-hoping the clones would be out, and George would let them in. Instead, Borhes opened the door. His eyes widened. “You promised!” he muttered. “I thought we could trust you.” Then he recognized the sacks for what they were. He swallowed.

“She found me,” Ronnie said. “I swear it—and she bought the food. You’d better let us in.”

If Borhes had had any other thought, Raffa made sure he didn’t act on it; she pushed her way through the door with her nose on Ronnie’s back. George, still tied up, looked around and his eyes lighted.

“Raffa!”

She ignored him for the moment, but gave both clones a long look that brought a flush to their cheeks. “Well, gentlemen. Ronnie tells me you aren’t Gerel, either one of you. I presume you have names: may I know them?”

“I’m Andres; he’s Borhes.” Andres seemed shaken; Ronnie felt an unexpected pang of sympathy. He would not have seen Raffa on the island; he probably thought of her as a frivoler, like the old Bubbles.

“I thought you might like something fresh to eat,” Raffa said, and began unpacking the food. When Borhes reached for a pastry, she stopped him with a glance. “Untie George,” she said.

“Good for you, Raffa,” said George, gleefully.

“Shut up, George,” she said, in much the same tone. “I expect you were being odious again. It’s not the time.” George got up, when Borhes had freed him, and came to the table stiffly, rubbing his wrists.

“Are you going to let us eat?” he asked.

“Yes,” Raffa said. “In the faint hope that hunger is what’s been dimming your collective wits.” Whatever protests they might have made were lost in the descent on the food. Raffa nibbled a few of the purple berries while she watched the food disappear. When the rate of disappearance slowed, she tapped the table with the knife Borhes had used on the sausage. They looked up with the guilty expressions of little boys who have hogged the birthday cake.

“Sorry, Raffa,” George said. “We were just so hungry—”

“I’m not complaining about that,” she said. “But it’s time to start thinking again.” When she paused, they said nothing, jaws still chomping busily. Raffa sighed. “All right. Ronnie told me that the Institute is quite willing to help you acquire new identities, but the former king has been badgering them, and they think he may be having the Institute watched.”

“And these two—and now you—know about us,” Andres said, picking his teeth inelegantly.

Raffa ignored the rudeness. “We’re no threat, sir—Andres or Borhes or whichever you are. Ronnie and I have nothing more in mind than living in peace as far from our families as we can get.” Ronnie sat up straight; he hadn’t realized that she had made up her mind on that as well. “Even George, I’m sure, has better things to do than make your lives miserable.”

“Many better things,” George said, in the tone of earnestness with which the salesman assures you the item in question is worth twice its price, and only the serious illness of his grandmother allows him to consider such a sacrifice as the present sale.

“Shut up, George,” said Raffa again, this time with no sting in it. “So we can help you get to the Institute—and once inside, you know the king can’t bother you. He has no authority here.”

“But what about the—” Ronnie began; he stopped short as Raffa’s glance landed on him like a brick on the head.

“Once we’ve helped these gentlemen,” Raffa said, “then we can discuss the matters you and I still have to discuss.”

“It sounds to me as if you’d settled them all,” said Andres without sarcasm, as if he were describing the movements of an alien creature.

“Within the limits possible, yes.” Raffa made no apologies. “Now, about getting you safely to the Institute—what sort of hours did they mention, Ronnie?”

“They said any time, and I thought in the dark—”

“Would be the obvious time to pick. Have another pastry. May I suggest lunchtime? Few fugitives choose midday to move around, and the king likes his meals. He wanders around in both morning and afternoon—and goes out in the evenings—but at lunch he’s sitting in the hotel, eating. And—as soon as possible. Tomorrow, for instance. If he has people looking for two copies of Gerel, we’ll give them something else—a group of young people, none of them exactly like Gerel. Surely you two can do simple disguises?”

“Of course,” said Borhes. He looked at Andres. “It might work.”

“It will,” said Raffa. “Tomorrow, late morning—I’ll come here alone. Be ready.” She got up to leave, and then laid a sheaf of the local currency on the table. “And here—be sure to eat a good supper.”

Late the next morning, Raffa found four alert young men, eyeing each other with some suspicion but no open hostility. Two of them looked like brothers, but not clones. Something had changed in their hair color, the bones of their faces, their way of moving. She didn’t stop to analyze it. “Come on,” she said. “The king’s back in the hotel—I waited to leave until he’d gone into the dining room. Ronnie, George—put your stuff in these packsacks.”

“Shouldn’t we be less . . . conspicuous?” Andres asked. He was eyeing her cherry-colored tunic, and the sheaf of bright flowers she carried, along with a basket of pastries.

“We can’t really be inconspicuous,” Raffa said. “What we can be is conspicuously something other than they expect. Students . . . whatever. Anything but two scared clones. If you’ll just chatter along like normal people—or eat . . .”

They trooped downstairs as casually as if they were going to a party. George started an anecdote that had nothing to do with anything; Ronnie munched a cheese pastry, and the clones looked a bit dazed.

“I don’t see why you didn’t bring a private car,” Borhes said, under cover of George’s story about the girl who had painted her brother’s feet purple.

“That would have been conspicuous,” Raffa said. “How often do hire-cars come to this neighborhood? Come on—just through the market.” The market, bustling with the lunchtime crowd, all more interested in food and drink than a girl with a bunch of flowers and her four companions. At the transit stop, a loose clump of people waited, most of them eating. Raffa had begun to relax when someone called to her.

“Raffaele Forrester-Saenz!” Raffa jumped as if she’d been poked with a pin, then tried to pretend nothing had happened. All four young men had gone rigid; the clones looked as if they might faint. “Raffaele!” came the voice, louder yet. Through the noise of her heart beating, Raffa could now tell that it was an old lady’s quavery disapproval—certainly not the king. She turned around, and found herself face-to-face with Ottala’s aunt.

“Yes?” she said, as casually as she could while impaled on that indignant gaze. Ottala’s aunt, draped in shades of mauve, with a knitted purple cap adorned with droopy knitted flowers in pink and beige . . . Raffa had to struggle not to burst out laughing.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know me,” Ottala’s aunt said. “You were at school with my niece Ottala. You ought to be ashamed of yourself! Your parents will hear about this!”

“About what?” Raffa said. Beside her, Ronnie’s arm twitched, but he and the other young men were steadfastly not looking that direction.

“Running off to carouse in foreign parts with a young man! And not just one of them!” Ottala’s aunt shook a ring-covered finger under Raffa’s nose. “Everyone knows your family doesn’t want you to marry Ronald Carruthers, and here you are—” Her head shot forward, like a turtle’s from its shell, as she peered at the back of four young male heads. “You needn’t hide, young man. I saw you across the market, laughing and chatting as if you had nothing better to do. And who are the others, if you please?” Ronnie sighed and turned around; the others still pretended not to hear.

None of your business was what Raffa wanted to say to the question, but practicality as well as manners prevented her. Old ladies like this didn’t quit bothering you just because you were rude; they had dealt with more rudeness already than the average youth could think up. Raffa tried to think if anything would help, and glanced past Ottala’s aunt to the person behind her. He was pushing a barrow, and on the barrow were . . . pottery pieces of incredible ugliness. Half-melted graceless shapes in colors that made her stomach turn. Recognition and counterattack came together.

“Those pots,” she began. Ottala’s aunt turned one of the colors on them, an ugly puce.

“You wouldn’t understand,” she began. “They aren’t just pots, they’re . . .”

“I understood that you yourself were quite an artist in pottery,” Raffa said, with emphasis. “You gave some to Ottala; she had them at school. I noticed, when I was in the market the other day, how much the local wares resembled them. Perhaps—”

“Great artists derive inspiration from many sources,” Ottala’s aunt muttered. Her dark little eyes peered up at Raffa.

“And lesser artists plagiarize,” Raffa said, with no softening. “Sometimes those who aren’t artists simply—”

Ottala’s aunt held up her hand, and Raffa stopped. “All right. I—I couldn’t make enough pots on my own—my family kept asking for more, and more, and more. Finally I got someone to make a few for me—and then a few more—”

“But why such ugly ones?” Raffa said, shocking herself. Ottala’s aunt shook her head, as if she hadn’t heard right, and then smiled sadly.

“I kept hoping they’d quit asking—you know, if I made them uglier and uglier.” After a pause, she went on. “I really can’t explain how everyone in the family has such bad taste—it seems the worse the product, the more they want.”

“Why didn’t you just tell them you were tired of making pots?”

“My dear, you aren’t old enough to understand.” The old lady leaned forward, confiding. “Someday, when you’re grown, and you’re enjoying things, your relatives will start complaining. ‘You never finish anything you start,’ they’ll say. ‘You pick up one hobby after another—you’re just wasting time and money with all these enthusiasms.’ ‘You should stick to one thing and learn to do it really well.’ ” Ottala’s aunt sniffed. “It doesn’t matter what it is. I expect that Ronald’s aunt, Cecelia de Marktos, heard the same thing about her horses.”

“That’s true,” Ronnie put in. “It’s one reason Aunt Cecelia’s so angry with my parents; they kept telling her that her riding was just a hobby, and not worth all the time she put into it.”

“You see?” Ottala’s aunt looked triumphant. “I think my family wanted to make sure I stuck to pottery, and that’s why they kept asking for more. And to be honest, my dear, I did want to quit. They were right.”

“Still . . .” began Raffa, who wanted to get the conversation back to the covert negotiation she had started. “About these pots . . . and Ronnie . . .”

“Oh, all right,” Ottala’s aunt huffed. “I won’t tell on you, if you don’t tell on me. But I still think young girls have no business running around in foreign lands with four young men. One was quite enough for me, in my young days.” As the tram came in, and Raffa moved to board it with the others, Ottala’s aunt called, “And don’t think I don’t recognize young George Mahoney there, with his ears the color of ripe plums. . . .”

The rest of the trip to the Institute passed without incident.