Dark Space - Marianne de Pierres [94]
* * * *
This time the korm was there as well. Mira wanted to say that she was well enough but that meant speaking aloud. Speaking to Cass. She’d rather sleep. Why is Catchut guarding the door?
* * * *
Next time the world was sharper. So were the aches in Mira’s throat and head. She lay still, orientating herself. Innis. Rast. Cass. She placed them in order of events.
‘Mira?’
Slowly, painfully, she turned her head. Cass was in the same spot as before. This time Vito slept in her arms. The korm was there too, on a makeshift roost in the corner of the small room.
‘Medic’s pretty basic. Rast said a few more hours with pain relief—no more. That’s all she can spare.’
‘What’s wrong with me?’ Mira rasped.
‘She thinks you’re on the right side of a broken skull. And there’s heavy bruising on your neck where he tried ... he tried…’
Silence.
‘Speak it.’
‘... Strangle you,’ Cass whispered.
‘Where is…he?’ Mira couldn’t say Innis’s name.
‘Rast has locked him and Marrat up. I’m so sorry, I feel responsible but—’
Yes, you are.
‘—There are things about him you don’t know . . .’
‘And there are—things you don’t know—as well. He would have killed me—he wanted to—push me through the fence to the Saqr. What would have happened to—Vito if he had?’
Shock registered on Cass’s face. Mira had never seen her in such distress and she felt a moment’s pity for the woman. Innis was a burden that she didn’t deserve.
The korm stirred on its roost, its crest filling at the sight of Mira awake. It stood up and loomed over the bed. ‘K^rm b^d. M^r^ h^rt.’
Mira held out a hand. ‘Korm misses—Djeserit. I—understand.’
‘M^ss M^r^ t^ ^f d^^d.’
Mira managed the smallest smile. ‘Not—dead,’ she whispered.
Vito woke and blinked, looking around in alarm. When he saw Mira he gave a little cry and reached out. Her heart contracted with pleasure and sorrow. Am I all he has in the world?
Cass laid him on the bed next to her. ‘My brother’s scared. We all are. And that Marrat is not the sort of friend . . .’
‘It was not—Marrat’s idea. Innis forced—him too. Blackmailed him. And I know what it is. So tell your fratella, if he comes near me or my—bambini again I’ll make sure the whole of Araldis knows. Rast in particular.’
Cass faltered, confused. ‘Wha-a-t do—’
Mira watched her distress intensify. ‘I know it was—him. He caused the Juanita tunnel—collapse.’
Cass trembled violently and began to cry into her hands. ‘I’ve protected him always. I always will. Promise me you won’t speak a word of it outside this room.’ Her voice was fierce, despite the tears.
‘He caused people to die. He is a—criminal.’ And Cass protected him. What did that make her? It made her nothing. Nobody cared about criminals in this world now. There were no Carabinere. No familia judges. No law. Suddenly Mira felt exhausted and depressed. She took Vito in her arms and turned the other way.
* * * *
When Rast came to see her, Mira was dressed in her fellala, sipping sweetened water to soothe her throat.
‘Enjoy the rest? Get up. I need the bed,’ Rast said.
Mira eased herself to the side of the cot and stood. Someone had repaired the skin of her fellala where Innis had torn at it. She ran her hand over the patch. It seemed sound. ‘How did you find me? I was almost. . .’ She couldn’t bring herself to say it.
Rast sat in the chair previously occupied by Cass and put her feet up on the bed. ‘I’ve had you watched.’
‘Perche?’ Mira asked, startled.
‘Not just you. Mulravey’s lot. I had a feeling about them and it paid off, it seems. For you, leastways.’ Rast tugged her white hair thoughtfully. ‘You know I lost two of my crew in the Juanita tunnel collapse. I kinda took the whole thing personal. Really stuck in my gut that we couldn’t find the killer.’
‘Killer?’ Mira’s heart fluttered. Should she tell Rast what she suspected?
‘Yeah. To my mind it wasn’t an accident. We were all