Coop flushed. "Nothing."
"I"m an empath," Althor said. "I can tell you"re upset."
"It"s just-" Coop exhaled. "Before you, the most important person I ever met was the pilot on the s.h.i.+p that brought me here. And she was just a liner captain."
"You"ll like my family," Althor said. Another thought came to him. "You meant my family are the ones that make you nervous, yes? Not me?"
Coop smiled. "You did at first. Not now."
"Althor," Cobalt said. "Your parents and your brother Eldrin are in the hall." The holopanel in the wall next to Coop erased its mountain scene and showed a view of three people. Tonight his parents were the same height. When Althor had been young, his father had often worn boots to make himself taller than his statuesque wife, but he had eventually stopped caring that he was short compared to her family.
Althor"s brother Eldrin was their oldest, out of ten children, with Althor coming next in line. Althor had long thought he and Eldrin embodied their parents" differences. Except for his violet eyes, Althor took after their maternal grandfather, with his height, ma.s.sive physique, and gold coloring. Of the seven Valdoria sons, Eldrin most resembled their father. He had inherited a few Skolia traits, being broader in the shoulders and taller than his sire. But he had their father"s wine-red hair, the violet eyes, even the sprinkle of freckles across his nose.
Eldrin"s hands were the Lyshriol norm, four thick fingers and a vertical hinge that folded his palm lengthwise. Althor had been born with Lyshriol fingers, but without the hinge that let them oppose each other. Instead, he had a rudimentary thumb. His parents had his hands rebuilt when he was a baby, to match the human norm. It served him well; with Lyshriol hands he would have had trouble making efficient use of ISC technology.
At sixteen, Eldrin"s interests were swordplay and girls; fourteen-year-old Althor had wanted to learn engineering and play sports. After he and Eldrin had a knockdown fight over a girl, their parents sent Eldrin offworld, to the Orbiter, an environment they thought more conducive to books than swords. Devastated, Althor hadn"t understood why Eldrin picked the fight. Althor hadn"t really even liked the girl. It was years before he realized it had nothing do to with her and everything do to with the fact that at fourteen, Althor was bigger, stronger, faster, more advanced in school, and more at ease with Imperial technology than the older brother he wors.h.i.+ped.
On the Orbiter, Eldrin had struggled with a culture where his skill with knives and swords was seen as juvenile delinquency rather than a source of admiration. In working with him, the education specialists began to understand why Lyshriol natives had no written language. Eldrin saw words as pictures; if the pictures weren"t identical, he read them as different words. Use five different fonts and he saw five different words. The hieroglyphic languages of Skolia and Eube had so baffled him that the sixteen-year-old warrior had once slammed his broadsword into a web console. Until then, no one had realized the depth of his frustration at being unable to process what came so naturally to his "little" brother.
Nor had Eldrin understood why his stunning looks and singing voice garnered so much more attention on the Orbiter than the soldiering attributes he considered far more worthwhile. But when he realized the genuine value people placed on his musical gifts, he let himself pursue his love of singing. Known now for his spectacular voice, he wrote and sang folk ballads about their home, the village of Dalvador on the planet Lyshriol.
Althor walked into the living room just as Cobalt let in his parents and Eldrin. His mother was wearing a blue dress and her gold hair floated everywhere. His father had on his usual trousers, laced s.h.i.+rt, and knee boots. Eldrin wore Orbiter styles now, simple and elegant, dark pants and a white s.h.i.+rt.
His mother hugged him, her face glowing. "You look wonderful." She held him at arm"s length. "But Althor, you need to eat more. Look how thin you are."
Eldrin laughed. "She told me the same thing."
Their father made an exasperated noise. "Roca, these boys are giants already. Make them any bigger and it will throw off the Orbiter gravity."
Laughing, Althor embraced her. "It"s good to see you, Hoshma." He grinned at his father over her shoulder. "And you, Hoshpa."
His father nodded, pretending to look gruff. "Are Syreen and Eristia here?"
"Not tonight." Althor glanced at his brother. "Dehya couldn"t come with you?"
Eldrin shook his head. "She"s working in the web."
It didn"t surprise Althor. Dehya"s work as a.s.sembly Key left her little time for a normal life. Eldrin, as her consort, took care of their social obligations.
A rustle came from behind them, accompanied by the tread of shoes on the carpet. Althor"s father turned toward the sound-and his genial expression vanished like a doused candle flame.
Coop was standing in the inner doorway. To Althor, the artist looked like a work of art himself, bathed in sunlight, his diamond earring sparkling, his beautiful face radiant.
Eldrinson spoke with stiff formality. "I"m afraid I have work on the web tonight. Please accept my apologies, but unfortunately I will have to miss dinner."
Althor swung around to him. "What? What duties?"
"My apologies." Eldrinson nodded without acknowledging Coop. He simply left the apartment then, the door snicking open for him and sliding shut after he stepped outside.
Althor stared after his father. Then he scowled at his mother. "It never stops, does it?"
"I"m sorry." She sounded stunned. "I don"t know why he did that."
"Like h.e.l.l. We both know why."
She started for the door. "I"ll go talk to him."
"No." Althor caught her arm. "I"ll do it. This is something he and I have to settle."
Coop came up to them, obviously mortified. "I"m sorry. I should go."
"You aren"t going anywhere." Althor discovered he didn"t have to feign his anger.
Eldrin glanced at the door, then at Coop, then at his brother. Althor? he thought. Do you want me to talk to Father?
Althor shook his head. No. I have to do this myself.
Roca turned her diplomat"s smile on Coop. "So you"re the mystery guest Althor wanted us to meet." She motioned to a divan. "Come sit with me. Tell me about yourself."
Glancing back at Althor, Coop let Roca pull him to the couch. As they sat down, Althor focused on his mother. Can you play host for a while?
Of course. She looked up at him. I truly am sorry about your father. I didn"t expect that.
Nor I, Althor lied.
So he left the apartment, and the building, and summoned a sailpath. As it carried him through the air, he thought, Moonstone Park.
The path landed in a sequestered glade on the outskirts of City. Althor found his father sitting on a bench under an arch of blue moonstone, among trees and flowers. A fountain gurgled nearby, but the area was empty of people, as Althor had arranged earlier this afternoon.
Eldrinson frowned at him. "You could have warned us."
Althor sat next to him. "I wasn"t sure you would come." He sent a thought to his spinal node. Basalt, verify security.
Verification complete. Area is secure.
"Basalt checked security," Althor said. "No one can monitor us here."
"Fine." Eldrinson still sounded angry. "So no one can spy on us. Perhaps now you will tell me what is so sensitive you had to play this charade with that boy? He has no idea it was a setup, no more than your mother or brother do. They think I believe he is your lover and I"m angry because of it."
"Would you be?" For Coop"s sake, Althor didn"t want that scene repeated in earnest. Although he had hoped his father could get out here without arousing suspicion, he hadn"t expected him to use Coop.
"Would I be what?" his father asked.
"Angry if he were my lover?"
"I would like to think I would see the best in any companion you chose." Squinting at his son, he asked, "Is he, ah-your lover?"
"He"s an artist." In truth, Althor didn"t know yet where he stood with Coop. So all he said was, "I"m his patron."
"Then what is this about?" Eldrinson spread his hands. "I couldn"t make sense of that convoluted message you had Basalt send me. I had to guess what you wanted. Give you an excuse to meet in private, yes? Without arousing the suspicion of all the monitors that watch us?"
"Yes." Althor stood up and paced across the glade. "What happened that night Soz tried to recapture Jaibriol Qox?"
His father blinked. "What?"
"The night Qox escaped." He turned to his father. "What happened?"
Eldrinson"s puzzlement intensified, shaded by old grief. "You"ve seen my statement about your sister"s death. Why dredge it up now?"
"I want to know why Soz was at the palace."
"I was alone there. She came up as my bodyguard."
"Why? That palace has the best security available."
Eldrinson shrugged. "Kurj ordered it. Ask him."
"When did Qox show up at the palace?"
"You"re more in a position to know those details than me."
Althor kept his voice cold. "I want to hear your version."
"Why does this sound like an interrogation?"
"Just tell me."
Eldrinson watched him with a baffled look. "Apparently an ESComm special forces team freed Qox. But something went wrong. I don"t know how he ended up at the palace. He got to a flier on the roof. To escape the planetary cordon, he activated the s.h.i.+p"s stardrive. Your sister went after him and they vanished."
"How did he penetrate palace security?"
"I don"t know."
"Soz must have said something." Althor tried to decipher his father"s closed expression. "Security is her expertise."
"I really can"t say. You know how I am with computers."
Althor understood what he meant. Eldrinson came from a world that had been isolated for millennia after the fall of the Ruby Empire. The dependence of the settlers on their ancient psiberweb proved disastrous when their technology decayed. They lost everything, even their memory of the Ruby Empire. Their focus on breeding psions went awry as the gene pool mutated and they ended up with an inability to process written language. Eldrinson was illiterate, not only with language, but with computers as well. However, psibers.p.a.ce was his universe. He had no need to understand the technology. All he had to do was think. And so he did, with a facility in the web greater than anyone else alive.
"Did you work in the web the night Soz died?" Althor asked.
"No." Eldrinson studied him. "What is it you"re after?"
"What about Soz?"
"What about her?"
"Did she perform any web operations that night?"
"Of course. I don"t know what."
"I think you do."
Quietly Eldrinson said, "Perhaps you better tell me what this is about."
Althor came back and sat on the bench. "I want to know why Soz erased a data file on your Prime account that night."
When Eldrinson"s face paled, Althor felt as if the ground dropped out from his feet. Until that moment he had, deep within himself, believed in his father"s innocence. Now he knew otherwise-and it gave him an impossible choice. He loved his father more than his life. But he had a duty to ISC and the empire that depended on its protection. Why would his father have used his Prime-his hot line to the Allied president-only hours before Soz went to her death? And why would Soz, a top-ranking ISC intelligence agent, have tried to erase all trace of that communication?
Althor suddenly remembered the epileptic seizure his father had suffered four years ago, prior to the Investment ceremony. The doctors had called it a stress response brought on by his grief over Soz"s death. But what if it came from some other source? Then the precautions they took to protect him against grief would have been more likely to fail.
As they had.
Althor realized he was clenching his fists on his knees. He exhaled, making his hands relax. "What could you have possibly had to say to the Allied president when Soz and Jaibriol Qox were both at the palace? Father, what?"
"I never spoke to President Calloway," Eldrinson said.
"You"re lying."
"Althor, don"t."
"Why?" He spread his hands, no longer able to maintain his impa.s.sive facade. "G.o.ds, give me a reason not to."
His father said nothing. After waiting, Althor said, "The night Soz went to her death, someone used your Prime account." He stood up. "I have to take this to Kurj."
"Althor, no."
"I have no choice."
Eldrinson took a breath. "She"s still alive."
"What?"
"Sauscony is alive."
Althor slowly sat down again. "That"s impossible."
"No. It isn"t."
Althor couldn"t absorb the words. They refused to register. All he could think to say was, "You went through the funeral, the memorial services, my own Investment, thinking that Soz was alive?"
Eldrinson swallowed. "Yes."
"Why?"
"President Calloway helped a Skolian and a Trader go into exile together."
"What does this have to do with Soz?"