String Theory_ Cohesion (Book 1) - Jeffrey Lang [117]
“And yet there is the promise of a new life,” Shet said, raising his glass slightly in salute. “Which is something you should discuss with your faithful hara someday.” The others all clicked in agreement.
“There is very little to tell,” Ziv said. “I was the shi-harat, the faithful guard, but Sem was not content with that.” Lowering his head, he continued, “And I was weak. I would prefer not to say any more.”
“You are not the first shi-harat, man or woman, who weakened in that manner,” Mol said, trying to reassure, though he sensed his hara’s disappointment.
“Nor the first man Sem has manipulated,” Diro added.
“True,” Ziv said. “I learned a great deal from Kaytok. He is an interesting fellow.”
“Do you believe his story?” Mol asked. “Could he have spoken to Gora?”
Ziv bobbed his head uncertainly. “He believes he did, which is the important thing. And now he intends to give the Key to Gremadia to someone. ‘To her,’ Gora told him.”
“Without being more specific about who the ‘her’ was,” Jara said.
“Correct.”
“One would think a spectral presence might be more specific,” Diro said, slurring his words slightly.
The youngster has changed, Ziv thought. “One would,” he agreed, then raised his glass to his lips. “But I have told Kaytok all I know of Sem, everything she has done.”
“Everything?” Mol asked. “To someone outside the tribe?”
“It seemed necessary.”
“And he will do the right thing?”
Ziv set his empty glass on the table. “Let us hope so, my hara.”
“So you’ve always had the Key?” Sem asked.
Kaytok turned away from the brig cell and looked out the large window, once again enthralled by the view of his world…how far below? Seven had told him at some point and the translator had done an admirable job of transforming the units so the distance meant something to him, but he couldn’t recall what the number was. A long way, he decided. Pressing one hand against the “window,” he marveled at how solid and real the forcefield felt. The things these people could teach me, he thought, not for the first time.
“So you’ve always had the Key?” she repeated.
He sighed and hung his head. One difference between windows and forcefields, he noted, was that forcefields didn’t mist up when you sighed on them. “My mother gave it to me. When Gora’s plans to go find Gremadia become all-consuming and she sensed that my sire would join him, she took the Key and hid it, thinking they wouldn’t leave without it.”
“She was wrong.”
“Obviously. And by the time they were getting ready to leave, she was so terrified of what would happen if anyone discovered she had the Key that she just left it where it was.”
“Out of curiosity, what does it look like?” she asked. “I thought I searched through every piece of property you owned and I don’t remember ever finding anything that looked like it could be the Key.”
Kaytok brushed a large knuckle against his chin, then decided, Why not tell her? “It was in the music box,” he said. “I kept it on my shelf next to the bed. And inside that was a small gray metal box whose top was welded shut. Do you remember?”
Kaytok could swear he saw Sem’s pupils dilate at the memory of the box. “Of course,” she said. “I used to play the music box in the middle of the night sometimes when you were asleep. I thought the metal box was just the workings.”
“No.”
“But the metal box was sealed shut. How do you know the Key was in there?”
“My mother told me,” Kaytok said. “Why should I doubt her?”
If she hadn’t already been sitting, Kaytok believed, Sem would have fallen over from the shock. “It could have been mine at any time,” she finally exclaimed. “The greatest weapon of our age, of any age.”
“Why do you think it’s a weapon?”
“What else could it be?” Sem asked. “It killed Dagan. Why would anyone else be different?”
Kaytok cocked his head in wonder. “If you were sane,” he said, surprised by