Dark Space - Marianne de Pierres [29]
Mira avoided the TerV-stop crowded with miners waiting to be transported to their shift, and walked the short distance to Villa Fedor by way of several small, unlit viuzzas. With each exhausted step she expected to hear Carabinere sirens. They would look here for her soon. She would seek Faja’s counsel and then leave.
Villa Fedor was a modest villa—by Mount Pell standards—situated in the familia district of Loisa. There was little to distinguish it from the surrounding buildings, aside from a small outhouse in the desert garden of imported red lostol grasses and teranu prickly tongues, and the Bear and Pearl crest, shimmering across the gate façade.
Mira avoided the main entrance and placed her thumb into the side gate’s authenticator. It shaped around her digit and released the lock. She risked spiking her ankles with prickly tongue to reach the side entrance unnoticed and repeated the action on the door there. When it accepted her tissue sample she stepped into the small, plain parlour.
Discordant noise spilled out of the room on her right. Through the door she glimpsed several bambini arguing, two humanesques against two aliens.
‘This is our world. We get it when we want it.’ One of the humanesques rested her hand possessively on the ballada table.
The alien korm—the largest of the four—whistled and chirped in excitement. The fur on its blue-grey skin had begun to bead in distress and its soft beak was open, baring a row of savage teeth. It fell back on its huge hind legs.
‘We are here first,’ said the other alien—a crossbreed—in stilted Latino.
‘So what?’ said one of the humanesques.
The korm’s crest spiked alarmingly and Mira stepped in to intervene. When the bambini noticed her presence in the doorway they all bowed hastily.
Mira gave them a slight nod. ‘I am Baronessa Mira from Mount Pell. The Baronessa Faja says the table must close down for the night.’ She leaned over and pulled out the magnet key.
The humanesques gave her sulky looks but dared say nothing. They knew that Baronessa Mira Fedor attended the Studium with the Pellegrinis and the Silvios.
‘You may go now,’ Mira said.
As they left the room she swayed and reached for the wall.
The cross-breed’s neck gills fluttered with concern. ‘Baronessa Mira, are you well?’ it asked.
The korm whistled and clicked, dropping down onto all fours.
‘Mia sorella,’ Mira panted. ‘Quickly!’
* * * *
TRIN
Within a few days Joe Scali grew the extraction sets that Trin wanted and distilled them into Trin’s organism access.
Trin then set up cross-reference checks for all the data. By the end of the first day he realised that his i-texts from Araldis Studium were inaccurate and misleading. The discovery sent a shiver of pleasure through him. A whole alternative history of Araldis dwelled among these neglected records.
He returned to the Palazzo that evening in a lighter mood—able to shift the guilty weight of his flirtation with Luna and the uuli’s death to a more distant place.
Tina Galiotto brought him dinner to his room, fussing over him as she always had, pleased that he was home for dinner. In the end he sent her away and ate his food by the window, watching the dust storm still blowing itself out over the plains. The tumultuous display of wine-red dust painted a more exhilarating picture to him than the store of flesh holos in his cupboard. In truth he had barely viewed them. Araldis was his pleasure—the world he owned.
Jilda appeared at the door as Trin poured the last of his wine from the decanter. He hadn’t drunk since the night in Riso’s Bar and he’d missed the warm courage of alcohol in his belly.
‘What do you want, mama?’ He did not bother to turn and look at her.
‘Marchella Pellegrini is coming to visit in a few days.’
‘Tia Marchella? Here in Pell? What has happened? Has there been a revolution?’ he joked.
Jilda drew a sharp breath. ‘She and your father have things to discuss.’
What can Franco have to discuss with his much-loathed sorella? Trin swung around in his chair to look at Jilda. She seemed angry, and again appeared to be sober.