Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard

Author:Aliette de Bodard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group

5

SECRETS

“That was very well done,” Elder Liễu said.

She’d arrived at the inn with a delegation of other Elders from the Council of the Eight: an elderly Rat woman, a middle-aged, plump Snake Hạc Cúc had seemed to dislike on sight, and a startlingly young Ox who’d immediately and bossily taken charge. Nhi knew them on sight—everyone knew the Council of the Eight—but didn’t know enough about them, and the thought of having to talk to total strangers made her weak in the knees.

There’d been no sign of a Dog anywhere, which was odd. Something was itching at the back of Nhi’s mind, something she couldn’t quite place: that feeling that secrets didn’t quite make sense, that she was missing something that would make everything fall into place.

Elder Liễu had received Nhi alone, which was clearly in deference to Nhi’s personal preferences. The others were with the Council: Bảo Duy, chastened and bandaged; Lành, aggressive, unpleasant, unwilling to talk about any of what had happened to her; Hạc Cúc, exhausted and disinclined to explain anything. Nhi hoped they would be all right, but she couldn’t be sure.

There was tea on the table, and translucent dumplings with shrimps. Nhi picked at hers with her chopsticks, trying to breathe.

“We’ll deal with the tangler,” Elder Liễu was saying. She was sitting between the two energy-founts in the room: all the shining blue lines converged to her, putting her wrinkled, sharp face in darkness and making her seem like something from the oldest stories, a wise woman scholar, or a statue of a bodhisattva.

“And the others?” Nhi said. “The strobilation.”

“That’s going to take more time,” Elder Liễu said, smoothly. A sigh. “You know there are politics in the Council.”

Of course. That didn’t mean Nhi appreciated them. “Yes,” she said. “Is this your way of telling me you’re not going to deal with the remaining tangler seeds? The other juniors and I can take care of them.”

“You,” Elder Liễu said, sharply, “need to be in the infirmary.”

“That’s Bảo Duy,” Nhi said. Bảo Duy had sheepishly apologized for going off on her own—as Nhi had suspected, she’d wanted to observe the tangler alone. She’d deliberately left the barrier generators behind her to not be a hindrance. Nhi supposed she should at least give Bảo Duy credit for not wanting to put the other juniors in danger. Minor credit for that, major discredit for endangering the entire mission.

Elder Liễu knew Nhi well enough to know that when exhausted and stressed, she became literal and blunt. She had the grace to not say anything about disrespect. “You’ll owe me a full accounting,” she said. “But it can wait until you’re all recovered. Most juniors wouldn’t have done half as well as you did.”

“Is that why you sent us?” Nhi said. That feeling of unease again. “Politics?”

Elder Liễu grimaced. “It’s for the good of the clans,” she said, finally.

Which wasn’t an answer.

A sigh, from her. “I’ll send people to deal with the strobilating tanglers, one way or another. You have my word.

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