A Dark, Distorted Mirror. Volume 5 : Among the Stars, like Giants. Part 1 : Learning How to Live

'What happened?' Moreil asked again. 'Speak slowly and clearly.'

Lanas bowed his head, shaking, and then he began to speak.

* * *

The girl was unconscious, her back a raw and ragged mass of flesh. His arms had tired from holding the whip for so long, but he did not set it down. He cradled it in his hands, feeling the knobs of flesh and blood that splattered the lash.

He grabbed her tail of hair and pulled her head back. Her long, soft, dark, beautiful hair. Her eyes were closed. He didn't like that. He wanted to see the anger in them, the defiance, the way she had cursed him, the way she looked down on him, thinking she was so much better than he was.

They always had. All of them. All the nobles. They'd all looked down on him. He'd seen them ride past in their fine clothes with their beautiful women and their big houses and they'd all looked down on him.

Well, this one wouldn't. Not forever. Eventually she'd beg him for mercy, and then after a bit longer she'd beg him for more. That was what he wanted. A fine noble's daughter begging him for things.

He chuckled and crossed to the other side of the room. There was a lot more here. A lot more. Books, jewellery, riches. He had taken a lot from Gorash. Not as much as he should have, though. The others had tricked him, taken his share. Just because they had the ships and the weapons and the soldiers and knew where to fence the items, that meant they thought they were better than he was. All of them, even that loathsome alien monster Moreil. Oh, he might have said he was taking nothing, might have said he was not interested in plunder, but Rem knew differently. Moreil was scamming him, taking what was rightfully his.

Wasn't he important enough to them? Hadn't he told them all about Gorash? He'd spent enough time there. He'd told them where the Governor's house was, where the nobles lived, where the museums and galleries and craftsmen's quarters were. What would they all have done without him to guide them?

And what did he have to show for it? A few pathetic baubles and one girl. He deserved more than that.

No, patience, he thought to himself. His time would come. He could wait and all things would come to him eventually. He wasn't going to fence his treasure. He didn't want money. He didn't want mercenaries or liquor or any of the things the others bought. He wanted treasure. And he would have it all.

He turned, and started as he saw someone in his room. In his room! In his private sanctum! It was the Centauri. The former Lord-General. He was standing next to the girl, touching her cheek and looking into her eyes. He was touching Rem's property! Just like a nobleman. He thought he could take anything he wanted just because he had had a title. Well not here! His title didn't mean anything here! The laws of the order promised him a fair and equal share. Oh, the others had tried to trick him out of that, and they'd pay for it later, but no one was going to take something that was rightfully his from his own sanctum.

And now he was cutting her down! How dare he? How dare he!

'Leave her alone!' he shouted, moving across the room. 'She's mine.'

Marrago looked at him and he drew back for a moment. It was not fear, no. He was not afraid of the man at all. He was just like any nobleman. Too weak and too reliant on his servants to stand up to a real man. No, Rem was just.... taking his stance, not being too eager and overconfident.

'She belongs to herself,' Marrago was saying. 'No one else.'

'She's mine!'

He finished cutting through her bonds and she fell limply to the floor. He caught her effortlessly and gently lowered her. He then removed his coat and wrapped it around her.

'She's mine!' Rem moved slowly sideways and picked up the kutari beside the wall. One of his little treasures from Gorash. He'd never been allowed one of these before. He remembered touching a nobleman's sword once as a child and being flogged for it, but now he had his own sword. It was his!

Just like the girl was, and this nobleman wasn't going to take either of them from him.

He charged forward, holding up the sword and screaming. He would defend what was his. He was entitled to defend what was his.

The nobleman must have tricked him. Yes, it was a trick. Nothing else could explain how he had moved so fast, knocking the sword out of his hands. It was all a trick. Rem felt the cold touch of Marrago's kutari against his face, and the warmth of his blood trickling down his cheek.

'She's mine,' he said.

'I should kill you for what you've done to her, and elsewhere. But this is a different place, and different rules apply.

'But come near her again, and I will kill you, and to hell with the consequences.'

It was not fear that made Rem stammer like that. Not fear at all. It was.... a bluff. He was lulling Marrago into a false sense of security. That was it. Let the nobleman think he was helpless, and then....

It was a testament to his acting skills that he was still trembling a long time after Marrago had left with the girl.

* * *

Rem Lanas finished his garbled story and Moreil looked at him. 'She's mine!' he said again. 'You've got to help me get her back.'

Moreil had no further time or patience for the fool. 'Go,' he said.

'But she's mine! You have to get her back for me!'

'I said go! Recover her yourself if you are strong enough, but trouble me no longer.'

Moreil did not watch him flee. The lordling was of no concern to him any more, but this Marrago was.

It was past time the two of them had a little talk.

* * *

Whispers from the Day of the Dead — V

'You aren't dead.'

'No. I am not.'

'Is the sun coming up, then? I can't see. Everyone I've seen tonight is dead. Everyone. I didn't realise I'd killed so many people, but I suppose I have.'

'You don't look like a warrior.'

'No. I'm nobody. Not any longer. I used to be a soldier, but.... after a while I just couldn't take any more. All of them.... At first, I thought it was.... justified. It was for defence and protection, but then it became revenge, and then it was a new war and it was for defence again and then.... and then....'

'You just did not know how to stop.'

'How do you know that?'

'We were the same. I heard.... pieces from the Grey Council. It started in anger and continued in pride, because we were too stubborn to admit we were wrong.'

'It wasn't stubbornness. It was just.... we didn't know anything else. Good God, have all those people died for something so pathetic?'

'No. They died for understanding. We know each other better now. We understand each other.'

'Are you sure you aren't dead?'

'I am not dead. It feels as if I am sometimes, but no, I am not dead.'

'I came here because.... I'd heard the dead came back, and they would answer questions. I hoped they would tell me some things, tell me what I needed to know, but all they've done is haunt me. All they've done. There are so many of them, and....

'You're the only person who's said anything to me all night. The others just looked.'

'That is why you came here. For understanding.'

'No. For forgiveness. Why did you come here?'

'There was one whom.... I loved very much. I hoped to see him here, to tell him everything I should have said while he was alive. To share one last night with him.'

'Did you?'

'Yes.'

'There was one woman I was hoping to see. I think I loved her, but I was never sure. I used to wonder if it wasn't more the idea of love than love itself I had with her. I wanted someone who would want to be