(eng) Nancy Kress by An Alien Light

Author:An Alien Light [Light, An Alien]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Disease and Antitoxin

Nothing exists but atoms and the void. —Democritus of Abdera Ayrys sat in her Ged chair in the Delysian hall, eating breakfast with Ondur and Karim. Three or four people ate at other floor tables; more wandered down the ladder to carry steaming bowls of food to the rooms above. They glanced sideways at Ayrys, who went on chewing. Karim met each pair of eyes, his hand casually on the heat gun that was the newest weapon from the Ged. The gun would sear flesh, but only at close range. Ayrys had noticed that the Ged weapons which humans could duplicate at year’s end—pellet tube, three ball—were deadlier than those they could not.

Sometimes Karim, grown more silent and somber over the two ten cycles since the forming of the Kreedogs, spent an entire evening cleaning his weapons while Ondur chattered to Ayrys with desperate brightness.

A soldier entered the hall through the southern arch. When she saw Ayrys, her upper lip drew back over her teeth. Karim stared until she dropped her eyes.

“I’ll walk with you to your teaching.”

“That’s not necessary,” Ayrys said.

“Let him go with you,” Ondur said. “Another Delysian has come down with the itching disease.”

“Who?”

“ Arquam, a soldier in the next hall. He got it last night.”

“How do you know, Ondur?” Ayrys asked. Ondur always knew such things; it was rumored that even Khalid came to her for information on what was happening in the Delysian halls. Ayrys had never asked Ondur about this, and in turn Ondur never asked what the six humans and Grax did within the Hall of Teaching. Ayrys understood. Too much knowledge could destroy the fragile kindness.

“What are his symptoms?” Ayrys asked.

“You talk like a healer,” Karim said, unsmiling, and Ayrys flushed. Of Karim, too, she asked no questions.

Ondur said, “The same as the other two. Red splotches on his skin that spread fast and itch painfully all the time. He keeps clawing at his skin. His lover is afraid he’ll scratch out his eyes. Let Karim go with you as far as the Hall of Teaching.”

“But, Ondur, how could Karim defend me against a disease? Not that I’m not grateful, Karim, but I don’t—”

“Oh, don’t argue, Ayrys! How do we know where this disease came from? It started at the same time those Jelite scum attacked you, and then their first lieutenant, who knows all their perverted doses and has the Ged to help him with more, moves into the Hall of Teaching. A disease is just a poison—isn’t that what the Ged say? This itching disease could be a Jelite poison!”

“What did that Ged call it, Karim? A back something? No reports say any Jelite have come down with it!”

Karim stared hard at Oridur, who suddenly flushed and dropped her eyes, but not before Ayrys had caught the look. Ondur had said too much. She was not supposed to tell me that. A little wave of nausea washed through Ayrys. But… it made sense that Karim would be suspicious of her.

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