Dark Space - Marianne de Pierres [59]
‘And again you forget yourself, Baronessa.’ Trin slapped her face with deliberate force.
She staggered backwards, feeling blood on her face. The seam of his glove had cut a welt across her cheek.
‘Stop!’ pleaded Djeserit.
The ‘bino began to cry.
Mira pressed her hand to her cheek, struggling to subdue her emotions. She had never felt this uncontrolled before. Her anger had become a molten, living thing inside her. She wanted to hurt this man, and the turmoil of the feeling would not leave her. Sealing her velum, she strode out into the sunlight.
Outside, the shadows of the TerV-way had grown longer. Mira crouched against the wall, letting tears flow until her velum was sodden with them.
Faja is dead. The words recurred like little explosions in her head, scattering her thoughts to places where she could not follow. Istelle.
She got to her feet and picked her way through burning debris. The viuzza was empty. There were no AiVs in the sky, only great drifts of smoke. The fire from Villa Cabuto and Villa Fedor raged northward, driven by gusts of wind. They would need to move on before the nightwinds came and brought the fire back on itself.
Mira followed an intersecting viuzza towards the market. Villas that weren’t damaged were shuttered or deserted. It was as though all the familia had left already.
One solitary man stood outside his gate façade in a full-weather fellalo, watching the purple sky. As Mira approached him he jerked a rifle up from behind his back and pointed it at her head. His skin was familia-crimson but his build was stringy. A syrupy scent clung to him, pervading even the smoke-tainted air. A non-Latino servant, she thought, who has had a lifetime of melanin boosters.
She lifted her hands in a supplicatory gesture. ‘Signor, I am from Villa Fedor. They are all dead. May I use your shortcast?’ she said.
He stared at her suspiciously. ‘Sat’s out. No ‘cast,’ he said.
‘What about news? Can you tell me what is happening?’
He kept the rifle high and steady. ‘Carabinere’ve deserted. Useless cazzone. Aristos have bailed out too.’ He cocked his head to the side and gave Mira a sly look. ‘Looks like they forgot one, though. You hungry? How about you come to my place?’
Mira shook her head, taking a step away. ‘I have others with me. Waiting for me.’
His glanced around. ‘Can’t see no one.’ He waved his rifle. ‘Git inside.’ He took a deliberate step towards her. ‘NOW!’
Panic sent Mira stumbling sideways. If she ran he might kill her; if she went inside he might rape her. Her imprudent rage at Trin Pellegrini had brought her to this.
A noise sounded behind the man and two young ‘esques ran towards them from between villas.
‘There!’ shouted one. He pointed behind the man. The man moved and Mira saw a partially excavated hole just inside the gate. The top of a large globular object was visible just below the lip of the hole. Something was buried in there.
The man swung his rifle around but the youths shot him before he could aim. He staggered backwards and fell. The shot did not kill him and he began to crawl towards the hole.
Mira wanted to run but her body remained frozen with fear and fascination as the young ‘esques shot repeatedly at the man.
Still he struggled forward, clawing at the ground until he reached the lip of the hole. In a final action he plucked at the globe with his remaining strength, pinching its skin. The globe contorted and tore open.
One of the young ‘esques shouted something unintelligible and fired at it, spattering its contents wide, some of which reached the hem of Mira’s fellala. The action loosed her frozen muscles and she ran back down the viuzza.
In her panic she took the wrong turning at an intersection. Seized by confusion, she roamed among the deserted villas, dizziness coming and going. Her fellala’s bio-check began a rapid blink to tell her that her body temperature had escalated. She sucked on the thin moisture tube inside her velum. The pouch wouldn’t last long, maybe a few hours without replenishment. And then ...
Mira stopped in the long shade of a wide