Galactic Mage 4: Alien Arrivals Read online

  She lifted it and held it up to the fading light coming through the window. There was some kind of gray-green liquid inside, the same color as the palm trunks in the cove. She thought that was a clever way to make it match the trees, but wondered why whoever made it didn’t just stain the glass. She’d seen glassblowers coloring vases several times when Kettle took her to the harvest festival each year, so she knew it was possible.

  She wondered if it might be some expensive elven perfume. Djoveeve told her that the lady elves had a natural perfume that came out of their skin as if it were enchanted there, although Pernie hadn’t smelled anything when she saw the three of them in the waves. Pernie wondered if maybe this was such a thing, bottled up for humans to use.

  She rose up on her toes and looked down into the courtyard where Master Altin had vanished. All the rest of them had moved inside the castle, it seemed.

  She looked back to the forbidden-tree decanter and smiled. What if it really was the perfume of the lady elves? Master Altin would love her instantly!

  She pulled the stopper out of the decanter and meant to take a whiff. But the moment she did so, the liquid inside vanished with a great sucking of air, much like the sound of someone who has just left by casting a teleporting spell. The decanter jolted her hand with the rapid evaporation, and then it was still and clear, not the least drop of fluid left inside.

  She raised it to her nose and smelled it anyway, hoping for at least some lingering scent of the lady elves. There was no smell at all. Now she really wished she’d gotten close enough to the three of them so she could have smelled them too. But she hadn’t, so she set the decanter back on the windowsill. She replaced the stopper, shrugged, and headed for the stairs.

  She found the people from Earth standing about the kitchen with Nipper, talking excitedly about something that had them all upset. Something about someone digging up some kind of new plant somewhere, or at least something that sounded that way. Pernie knew that Orli Pewter had done things to plants when she was on the Earth ship, and that her favorite thing was flowers and gardening and stuff. Pernie never liked gardening, and she hated it when Nipper and Kettle made her go out to the gardens and pick vegetables and fruit for supper all the time. They made her pull weeds sometimes too. Master Altin and Master Tytamon never had to do those sorts of things. And besides, plants were boring, which was why Pernie had always loved to hunt.

  She watched as they talked, thinking her thoughts, when Kettle came into the kitchen from the big pantry where they kept all the most necessary stores. The sight of the flour-doused, red-faced woman made Pernie want to leap for joy, then tears came to her eyes so unexpectedly she had to turn and patter quickly down and out of the hall. She hadn’t expected that.

  She wanted to run back and hug her, the only mother she’d ever known, the one person in the whole world who loved Pernie more than anything. She wanted to run in there so bad it hurt. But she could hear Orli Pewter’s voice coming down the hall, and that harpy’s screech put the scowl back on Pernie’s face. If Orli Pewter weren’t in there, she could have gone to Kettle, but for now she’d have to wait. This was the hunt. This was the one thing Pernie knew better than all else. And patience was everything.

  She could imagine hearing Seawind saying those very words in her head, but she shook that away. She wasn’t going to listen to him anymore. But she would be patient. If she was patient, she would have Kettle and Master Altin to herself, and that would be the best.

  Resisting the urge to go watch them again, to watch Kettle with her smiling eyes and gentle hands—except for spankings, but Pernie already knew that would never happen again—she slunk off into the dining room, where she took up a position in the dark corner beyond the armor that stood there like a statue all the time. It was the same place that Master Altin had appeared all bloody and dying that one terrible day. The day she had saved his life. Again. And the day that Orli Pewter had gone off with him to save some stupid planet, leaving Pernie behind. Also again. She thought it was a good place to wait, though she didn’t go behind the suit of armor all the way. She knew enough about teleporting now to know better than that, for he might think to teleport there again today.

  She sat upon the floor contemplating how happy Master Altin would be to see her again, a few days from now, when at last she emerged from Great Forest with all the stories she would have to tell. She could tell him about the sacred horned manatee she’d ridden, even if only for a little while, and about the beautiful lady elves. She would tell him all about Knot too. She thought he would be proud of her for that, even if Knot wasn’t as good as a flying dragon was.

  That’s when Kettle appeared.

  Sure enough, just as Pernie had planned, Kettle came in with a tray of plates and silverware and began setting places enough to serve all those folks Pernie had seen in the courtyard and several more besides.

  A strange young woman Pernie had never seen before came in behind her and helped to set the places too, which put a frown on Pernie’s face. That would have been Pernie’s job before. True, she’d always hated doing it, but she didn’t like having that other person doing it even more.

  Still, between the two of them they got all the places set. Pernie counted eighteen in all, which nearly encompassed half the available seats at the table there. Pernie couldn’t remember seeing that many places set there more than a time or two, and both of those had come in the wake of the Earth people first arriving at Prosperion. It certainly seemed that the Earth people made everything change a lot. Especially Orli Pewter.

  With that thought, Pernie decided to take her chance. She reached down and pulled the little vial of poison from her boot, then padded quietly across the distance between the shadows to the place she well knew Orli would sit, right at Master Altin’s right hand. She pulled free the little stopper and let go one single drop, the clear liquid falling out of her illusion spell and glinting diamond-like in the candlelight as it fell.

  Pernie leaned over the edge of the table and peered down into the cup, making sure the drop wouldn’t be visible. The shadows were dark enough at the bottom of the vessel to hide it well. And no one would look into those shadows closely anyway. Why would they?

  Pernie smiled and retreated back into her own shadows in the distant corner of the room and once more lay in wait. She wanted to watch Orli Pewter as she died, wanted to see her eyes blinking with surprise as she gasped out her last silent words, surprised by the unexpectedness of death like a dumb monkey or a dumb latakasokis.

  Chapter 51

  Pernie waited patiently as Kettle, Nipper, and the nameless serving girl brought out trays of fruits and things to nibble on while the main courses were prepared. The girl, who Pernie guessed might be at least four years her senior, carefully poured the wine around the table. Pernie watched, judging her as she went about the work, satisfied to see her spill twice and several times having to add wine to a pour because she’d pulled away too soon the first time. Pernie wouldn’t have done that.

  Eventually the diners were brought in. First came Orli Pewter, smiling at something Roberto was saying. Pernie saw that it was in fact Roberto as well, despite the lack of the uniform he’d always worn before. She rather liked his long-tailed purple coat, especially now that he wore a fresh one that wasn’t torn apart at the sleeves. Behind them came several women who, all but one, wore the same bright color Roberto did. Their tightly fitted corsets marked them as being of one crew—likely the silvery spaceship in the meadow—while the variety of their flesh tones marked them as being as different from one another as elf from man from orc.

  But they were, to the last of them, exquisite to gaze upon. Pernie marveled at how pretty they all were, though not so beautiful as the lady elves. She noted, however, that the lady elves could not possibly be as strong as some of these women, for there were four of them who were sublimely powerful. They sat together, and Pernie marveled at how the smooth skin of their round shoulders and bulging biceps was drawn tautly enough
that the candlelight could shape the definition of the muscles underneath. Pernie had seen far more than a few men who were not near so strong as that. Seeing them made her smile, and she thought they must be great warriors from Earth. The fact that she couldn’t talk to them made her squirm where she leaned against the wall. It was as if the most exotic and wonderful women of Earth had come all the way across space just to eat with the people of Calico Castle. Well, with Master Altin and everyone else at Calico Castle except her. Not with Pernie.

  Pernie wished she could eat with them. Or even just pour them wine. She wanted to so much that she was tempted to kill her illusion spell and just walk out into the room. But she didn’t. One glance at Orli sitting there was enough to keep her on course.

  At length, all the seats but Altin’s at the head of the table were filled, and Pernie knew that there would be no more to arrive. From the angle she had at the table, twice she saw the long arm of a very dark woman—the only one besides Orli not in the purple uniform to match Roberto’s coat—reach for a wine cup in a way that seemed as if she might be going to grab the one that sat before Orli instead of her own. Both times Pernie nearly jumped out to warn her off of taking a drink, but both times, Pernie realized her mistake. Still, it made her shift to the nearer side of the armor, where the shadows weren’t quite so dark. She knew her illusion wavered some, but it was still dark enough. No one was looking for her anyway.

  After a time, when she was done appreciating the beauty and the alien nature of Calico Castle’s visitors, and as she shifted uneasily waiting for Orli to take a drink of wine—Why is she not drinking her stupid wine? Pernie thought repeatedly—Pernie was able to catch the gist of the conversation. It seemed the plant that she had heard them talking about in the courtyard was a “trans-plant,” and it was on some planet somewhere. She didn’t know what a trans-plant was, but aliens were trying to dig it up.

  She couldn’t imagine there being any more aliens than there already were. How could there be so many? Why would there be? But she supposed aliens might be like the creatures in nature in that way. Just lots and lots of them, and no sooner had she thought she’d learned about them all than she’d find some new one sitting in a tree. Or else someone would bring her a book filled with new descriptions and sketches to go along. Or maybe someone might come along and take her off to a place like String, where there were all sorts of new animals to learn about—and be eaten by. So it seemed to her, upon considering for a moment, that there likely were as many aliens as the night sky could hold. She supposed it could hold a lot if it wanted to, just as a jungle could.

  As she continued to eavesdrop, she learned that Master Altin had gone off to see Her Majesty to ask for help with the new problem of the aliens digging up whatever he and Orli Pewter and Roberto and all these strong, pretty Earth women had buried there. Orli Pewter didn’t think help was going to be allowed.

  “Her Majesty is off doing something sneaky,” Orli explained. “Altin hasn’t been able to reach her, even by her messengers, for most of this whole last year. He’s convinced she’s up to something that she doesn’t want anyone, including him, to know about.”

  Roberto nodded as he stuffed a chunk of roasted boar into his mouth and chased it with a draught of wine. “I got that feeling a long time ago myself. When I tried to get help with the wannabe stowaway problem at Murdoc Bay, she pretty much blew me off. When I did get in contact with her two months ago and told her people were trying to sneak onto my spaceship—our spaceship—she patted me on the side of my face like I was five and said, ‘Just be a good boy and make us both rich back there on Earth.’ Then she blew me off again. I haven’t gotten through to her since.”

  “Altin says he’s seen some strange designs too, some things he found in Aderbury’s office, strange fortress designs. He thinks she might be trying to colonize another planet somewhere. It would certainly explain the complete and total absence of Citadel all year.”

  “But why would the Queen keep such a thing secret from the Galactic Mage? Isn’t that what she pays him for?” Pernie tilted her head sideways as the woman who asked the question spoke, marveling at her lithe, long limbs, her skin as dark as the shadows Pernie was hiding in. She looked to Pernie like the statue of the Huntress she’d seen once on a trip to Leekant with Gimmel and Nipper a few years ago, all grace and strength, a beauty that, while still entirely feminine, spoke of solidity and deadliness rather than something soft and simply pleasing to the eye. Pernie decided that if she couldn’t be beautiful like the lady elves, then someday she would be beautiful like that.

  “Well, she says she’s paying him to discover things,” Orli said. “But I think, if I’m being honest, our Yellow Fire project irritates her to no end. I think Deeqa is right about Her Majesty in that. It seems like she ought to really want Altin working on whatever she’s doing—assuming she’s doing anything at all. I’m pretty sure that’s part of why she still just doesn’t like me very much. I’m always keeping Altin from what everyone else wants him to do.”

  “You are,” came Altin’s voice as he himself came through the doors. “And it does vex her to no end.” He strode across the intervening distance and took his place at the head of the table. “But, she is not quite so disinterested in the Yellow Fire project as she would have you believe. I know for a fact that she covets Liquefying Stone worse than any drunkard does his wine.”

  Pernie’s eyes shifted from watching him to watching Orli’s wine cup, realizing she’d forgotten to watch it for a time. It still sat right where it had been, though. Pernie had grown so used to watching things carefully since her first encounter with the sugar shrimp that she was sure of it, sure that the distance between the base of Orli’s cup and the tip of her soupspoon was exactly as it had been.

  It occurred to Pernie that Master Altin would be very sad to watch Orli die. He would try to take her to the fat doctor in Leekant, and he would try to save her with his high-ranked healing spells. But it wouldn’t work. Fayne Gossa worked too fast. Pernie felt bad about making Master Altin sad. Still, he would get better in time. Kettle had stopped crying about that old man, Ilbei Spadebreaker, soon enough, and though Pernie hadn’t seen the woman in a long time now, she thought she might have stopped crying about dead Tytamon too.

  Even with Master Altin’s mention of wine, and despite the fact that he took a long draught of his own, Orli still didn’t reach for her cup. Pernie wanted to run over there and pour some down her throat. Waiting was unbearable.

  And wait she did, because all through the dinner, Orli never had a drop. She drank water all evening through. They ate five full courses and then sat about talking long after, the nameless girl coming in repeatedly and pouring more and more wine for everyone, but the unendingly uncooperative Orli Pewter just sat there. In fact, the serving girl came so many times that Roberto and several of his crew had grown louder and louder, and soon they were using words that they would not have had they known Pernie was listening—not that she cared, of course. Gimmel had taught her all the bad words, and they’d once had fits of giggling over the course of a wagon ride back from town. Roberto had once taught her some good ones from the Earth language as well. Who would have thought there could be so many words for the private parts of men? And there were at least twice that many for the private parts of women, up top and below.

  But no matter how loud Roberto and the women got, at least those that had not gotten up and gone back to their berths on the silver ship, Orli simply never touched the wine. Not the whole time, even after Roberto and the last of his crewwomen were gone. Pernie knew they were his crew after listening so long. But they were gone, and soon it was only Master Altin and Orli left. Pernie thought they might have some kissy-kissy romantic toast, but when the serving girl came back to clear away what remained of the dessert plates, she asked if Orli was going to have any of her wine, to which Orli said, “No.” Then the girl took it away.

  The whole evening ruined.

  Pernie would have t
eleported herself out in disgust, knowing that she wouldn’t get another opportunity today, but she also knew that with just the two of them there, Altin would recognize the sound of her teleport when the air sucked into the empty space. He would know someone had been there, and then he would come look. She knew he’d found his divining powers too, which meant for all she knew he could sniff her out magically. So she had to continue to sit and wait. A long hunt she’d been on, and never got to take a shot.

  When the serving girl was gone, Altin leaned across the table toward Orli and took her hands in his. What he said next was poison in Pernie’s ears.

  “You’ve been right all along about Her Majesty and the wedding. And even trying not to be selfish, I’ve managed it anyway. I—”

  Orli cut him off. “No,” she said. “You haven’t. And whatever Her Majesty made you come here and say, it’s fine. I was serious before, and I am now. I don’t care when. We already have each other, and since things keep unfolding as they do, well, I realize how silly it was for me to be in such a rush. I’ve been the selfish one, Altin. The very fact of that guilt you’ve felt all this time is proof. I’ve been married to an old idea—not that marriage is an old idea—just that, I don’t know, that I needed some ceremony to signify something, when in truth I really don’t.”

  He smiled, and Pernie saw the love in his eyes as he gazed upon Orli Pewter. It made Pernie’s skin burn and her chest ache. Master Altin would never look at her like that. Not while she was just a little girl. It didn’t matter how many words Pernie knew for private parts if she couldn’t make him look at her like that. Watching made her stomach turn.

  “Well, that’s not exactly what I was going to talk about,” Altin said. “Yet it is precisely, though in another way. Her Majesty didn’t say a thing about it, to be frank. She was irritated at my insistence to see her for about three blinks of an eye, and then, upon learning of this strange new set of machines on our new Yellow Fire’s world, she’s suddenly in a different sort of huff. I pressed her on it, and got her to agree to send Citadel … as soon as she can. But she said she wants me on it when it arrives.”