A Fire Born of Exile by Aliette de Bodard

Author:Aliette de Bodard [de Bodard, Aliette]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781625676528
Publisher: JAB Books
Published: 2023-10-11T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Clarity, Power and Justice

Hoà ran.

It was pointless, rationally – it wasn’t as though Thiên Dung would get worse if she walked.

She sent a single message to Thiên Dung through the network: ‘Don’t move. Be careful.’ She’d have called, but she couldn’t run as fast while calling, and she didn’t think she could really tell Thiên Dung she was being poisoned via message. Too many explanations required.

When – out of breath, preceded by the skitters of the few bots she had left – Hoà arrived home to their compartment, she found Thiên Dung downstairs, waiting for her behind the counter.

‘Big sis?’

Hoà took a deep, shaking breath. ‘I need you to listen. Carefully. And not to ask questions. Please. I promise you can ask all the questions you want afterwards.’

‘Fine. But you’ll still get all the questions at the end, and you’d better be able to answer them.’ Thiên Dung breathed, slow and hard; at least she didn’t seem like she was going to choke any more.

Good.

She listened. By the end of it, she was sitting on the single chair beside the counter, her bots thronging around her like a court. She raised a hand to her mouth, a bot trembling on her hands.

‘Poison.’ Her voice was flat. ‘Cinnabar Clouds. From the shipyards. And you were poisoned, too?’

‘My water bottle,’ Hoà said. ‘On board the ship.’

‘That’s…’ Thiên Dung closed her eyes. ‘All right – what’s the antidote?’

‘Here.’ Hoà put down the carved bottle Quỳnh had given her.

Thiên Dung stared at it, suspiciously. ‘This isn’t yours.’

‘No,’ Hoà said. ‘But I really think—’

‘No, I think this is relevant. Where did you get it? You said you were poisoned with a high enough dose to knock you out, but you’re fine now. Which means you were cured. Which means you went somewhere.’

‘And…?’

‘And I need to know how many liabilities we’re dealing with.’

‘She’s not going to talk.’ Hoà thought of Quỳnh’s touch on her hair, and felt herself turn beetroot red. ‘I doubt it’d be in her interest to.’

Thiên Dung stared at her sister, and then she sighed. ‘The Alchemist, is it? The one who came here?’

‘Is it that bad?’

Thiên Dung sighed again. Her bots heaved. ‘People like her – they mean well, but they distort everything they touch. They bring upheaval in their wake, and the kind of trouble that just gets you noticed.’ She paused. ‘But that’s really besides the point. We should be focusing on the problem at hand.’

‘Which is taking the antidote?’

‘Mmm.’ Thiên Dung weighed the bottle in her hand, curiously. ‘At some point, yes. But the problem at hand is actually… how were we both poisoned?’

‘It was the ship.’

‘But I never saw the ship,’ Thiên Dung said. ‘Only Heart’s Sorrow.’

‘And the others?’ Hoà crouched, trying to breathe. ‘All right, let’s try this another way. I’m all for having this conversation, but I want you to take those pills first.’

‘That’s hardly going to—’

‘Help? Yes it is. You’re distracting me. I know you’re not going to die right now, but I could use some reassurance.

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