suddenly Ara realized how handy such an item must be. She cast about for something to say that could end the argument, but for once she was at a loss.
“What you did was a form of slavery,” Vidya replied in a cold voice.
“It was either that or deal drugs, Mom.”
“It was a terrible thing,” Vidya said stubbornly.
“I only sold myself, Mom,” Sejal snapped. “You sold your children.”
Kendi gasped. Vidya fell silent. Her hands stopped twisting in her lap, as frozen as her face. Sejal froze as well. His words hung in the air. Time and silence stretched unbearably. Ara wanted to crawl under one of the cobblestones.
“Take him,” Vidya whispered.
“What?” Ara said.
“Mother?” Ben asked in Ara’s earpiece. “Mother, are you there?”
“Take him with you,” Vidya repeated, still whispering. “I have failed as a mother. Take him and train him and do whatever else you do.”
“Mom-” Sejal began.
“No, Sejal,” Vidya interrupted. “You are right, and you must go.”
“Mother?” Ben said.
“What is it, Ben?” Ara subvocalized.
“It took me a while to get everything back on line after your file scramble, or I would’ve called earlier. The guard have left the ship. They didn’t find anything, but they’ve posted half a dozen officers outside. I don’t know how you’re going to get in.”
“We’ll worry about that in a minute,” Ara replied, and was suddenly filled with an impulse to rush back to the Post Script so she could hug Ben hard. “Stand by.”
“You can come with us, Vidya,” Kendi said. “You don’t have to stay here.”
Vidya shook her head. “I have…responsibilities I must attend to.”
“The neighborhood,” Sejal spat.
“No, Sejal.” Vidya got up. “I have to talk to the man who…made you what you are. There are questions he must answer. And none of you can wait for me.” She reached down and pulled Sejal to his feet. He rose reluctantly.
“Sejal, I love you, and you must go,” she said, and embraced him quickly. “And I am not leaving you forever. I will find a way to join you when I am done here.”
“The monastery is on a world called Bellerophon in the Independence Confederation,” Ara said, rising to her feet. “Once we get out of the Unity, I’ll leave notices about you. When you get out yourself, ask in any public place or on any public network how to contact me-Mother Adept Araceil-and the Children of Irfan. Eventually one of our people will hear of you and take you to us.”
Vidya nodded.
“And now,” Ara finished, “we must leave.”
Sejal and Vidya hugged once more, and a lump rose in Ara’s throat. She had said good-bye to Ben often enough, and more than once had wondered if she’d never see him again. Kendi lead Sejal away, leaving Vidya at the bench. Sejal’s face remained rigid, and Ara didn’t try to speak to him-she was sure he was controlling tears he didn’t want to shed.
As they were leaving the courtyard, Sejal suddenly stopped.
“Mom, there’s a loose floorboard in the back of my closet,” he said over his shoulder. “Put your finger in the knot and pull it up.” Then he stiffly started walking again before Vidya could reply.
CHAPTER TEN
PLANET RUST
I seen my duty and I done it.
A very subdued group made its way back toward the space port. Unfortunately, their problems were just beginning. Ara activated her earpiece.
“Ben, what’s the status on board?”
“Unchanged,” Ben said in a broadcast that encompassed Pitr, Kendi, and Harenn. “Six guards outside the ship that I can see, possibly more I can’t.”
“They figure Kendi has to come back eventually,” Pitr said as they walked.
“What’s the matter?” asked Sejal, who didn’t have an earpiece and could hear half of the conversation. Ara quickly explained.
“So?” Sejal said. “I can hold off six people, no problem.”
All four monks halted on the sidewalk and stared at him. “You can?” Ara said.
“Sure.”
“Why didn’t you hold off all the guards at the hotel, then, instead of just making one punch the other?” Kendi demanded.
Sejal shrugged. “I can’t do more than one off the top of my head. I need some time to concentrate. Hard to do that when people are throwing lamps and crashing through windows.”
“Sejal,” Ara said carefully, “how many people can you… handle at once?”
Another shrug. “I don’t know. The most I’ve ever done is eight.”
Ara’s stomach went cold. What was Sejal’s maximum? Ten? A dozen? A thousand? An army? Ara imagined a troop of grim-faced soldiers all unafraid to die because someone else was controlling their very thoughts. Could this boy who had cried at his mother’s feet do something like that?
But he was a boy, Ara reminded herself, who had been selling himself on the streets for money. A boy who grew up without a father and felt neglected by his mother. The perfect recipe for trouble.
Their disguises were still in place, so getting into the spaceport proved relatively easy. The place was crowded, as usual, and guard were everywhere, though none gave Ara and the others a second glance.
“How close do you need to be, Sejal?” Ara murmured over her shoulder. Sejal’s collar and shackles were still in place and he walked a pace behind her.
“I need to see or touch them,” Sejal replied in an equally low voice.
They made their way to the landing field. Harenn trotted off ahead and returned to report that the six guards were still there and that she had found a vantage point that might work.
They ducked and weaved their way across the field. The harsh smell of fuel hung in the humid air, and the sun had fallen low in the sky. Eventually, the familiar gray wedge of the Post Script became visible ahead of them. They stopped behind an empty loader and peered around it.
“Is that it?” Sejal asked, pointing. A half dozen guards were waiting by the ramp that extended up to the hatchway, their black and scarlet uniforms unmistakable.
Ara nodded.
“All right.” Sejal strode toward the ship.
“What’s he doing?” Pitr gasped.
“Don’t move,” Ara ordered. A small cynical part of her wondered if the guard would open fire. That would certainly solve her problem. In any case, there wasn’t anything she and the others could do but watch, unless they wanted to take on six armed guard with their bare hands. Sejal, in his shackles and ragged robe, stopped fifteen or twenty meters away from the guard and stood with his arms folded.
“What are you doing there?” a guard shouted, but Sejal didn’t answer. “You, slave! I said, what are you doing
