Ashes of Candesce: Book Five of Virga

native to this part of Virga. It's too cold for them. So if one strayed this deep...'

'Oh, yes, if one strayed this deep.' He shook his head. 'But I happen to know that a bug that's been living on the fringes of Meridian for years disappeared about a month ago. There were witnesses said they saw ships circling it in the evening sky--heard the sound of artillery being fired. Now, tell me: those horns there. Do they look intact to you?'

She did think she could see dark pits in the giant horns, now that he'd mentioned it. Behind her, one of the men from the government was saying, 'It took weeks for it to cool down enough to fall into a dormant state. We didn't really have to do anything, just keep it away from the city until it finally began snowing in its body cavity. Now, as you can see, it's in hibernation.'

Antaea frowned at the frost-painted hide, more landscape than flank, that curved far beyond the range of the ship's floodlights. She had to admit, she wanted the monster to have been something ordinary like this. It would be so much simpler; so reassuring.

If she thought this way, though, how much more so would the officious, conservative bureaucrats who ran Abyss these days? Monster was not a column heading in their ledgers. So, would they invent an answer if they couldn't find one? Of course they would.

She shot her companion a sour look. 'Are you going to mention your little theory to our hosts? And how did you hear about it anyway?'

'I pride myself in listening well,' he said; then he put out his hand for her to shake. 'Jacoby Sarto.'

That was definitely a name from the principalities of Candesce, thousands of kilometers from here. 'Sayrea Airsigh,' she said as they shook, and she saw his eyes widen minutely. He noticed her noticing, and grimaced.

'Excuse me,' he said. 'You look like another Guardswoman of winter wraith descent...'

Had he seen a photo of her somewhere? That wouldn't be unusual, what with her notoriety after recent events in Slipstream. 'Well, there's more than one of us in the Guard, you know,' she said, and then added icily, 'and I'm told we all look alike.'

He refused to be baited. 'So the Virga Home Guard agrees with Abyss's official story, that the monster was a capital bug all along? -- Even though there are dozens of Guard cruisers patrolling the sunless countries even now?'

'Are there?' She didn't have to pretend her ignorance; this man seemed to know details of the situation that Antaea had only been able to wonder about.

He gazed at the pebbled hide of the capital bug. 'Some of us are keenly interested in the truth of the situation. Of course, as a member of the Home Guard, you know everything already. That being the case, I really have no reason to give you my card'--and here a small rectangle of white paper suddenly appeared between his fingers--'nor tell you that I'm staying at the Stormburl Hotel, on Rowan Wheel.'

Damn him, he had her figured out. She opened her mouth to say something dismissive, but his gaze flicked over her shoulder and back; she quickly snatched the card and palmed it before turning to find that two Abyssal cabinet ministers were closing in on her. 'Gentlemen,' she said with a gracious smile.

'It's a magnificent beast, isn't it?' said one of the two. Antaea glanced over her shoulder; Sarto was gone.

'Yes, beautiful,' she said. 'I've seen them before, but never up close, of course. Their song kills.'

'Yes.' He nodded vigorously. 'We trust that the Guard is, ah, in agreement with us that the disappearance of the outlying towns, the battle with the sun lighter--these were all caused by this one?'

The battle with the sun lighter. She'd heard about that; well, practically everybody in Virga had by now. Hayden Griffin was fabled for building a new sun to free his country from enslavement by the pirate nation of Slipstream. He had been constructing another sun for a client here in Abyss when the monster interrupted his work. The stories had him pursuing it to its lair and incinerating it with the nuclear fire of his half- built generator. Antaea hadn't really believed this part of the rapidly mutating legend, but here was an Abyssal government official, offhandedly confirming it.

She belatedly realized he wanted some response from her. 'Um--sorry?'

He looked impatient. 'Do you think this explanation works?'

'Oh. Yes, yes, of course. It's very, uh, convincing.' She gestured to the bug. 'Especially having the actual bug to show. A nice touch.'

He relaxed. 'The response has been good, I think.' Around them, the guests were chatting animatedly, and some of the reporters had left with a steward to find a good vantage point from which to photograph the bug. 'I think we can finally lay this incident to rest.' The official hesitated, then said, 'But we'd understood that we had the Guard's consent to do this. It was a bit of a surprise to see you here. Was there any problem...?'

'Oh! No, no, I'm just observing.' She gave him a sphinxlike smile. 'Everything is just fine.'

'Good,' he said, as he and his companion nodded to one another. 'That's ... good.'

They bowed themselves away, and she watched them go with mixed contempt and bemusement. Then she turned back to examine the bug.

This was indeed a clue. Maybe she should rent a jet bike from one of the wheelside vendors back in Sere, and slip back here to check the thing out herself. Those horns did look shot up--though the Abyssal navy would have targeted them first if the creature really had been threatening the city. No. Any evidence she might find here would be inconclusive. She would need more if she was to disprove the government's story.

Even assuming that she did, what then? Clearly, whatever was going on, the Home Guard knew about it. What could Antaea do here but satisfy her own curiosity?

Well, there was one thing. A life to save, maybe. She should focus on that; this bug, and all the furor around it, was just a distraction.

With a sharp nod she turned from the window. Before she left the lounge to join the photographers in the fresh air on the hull, she looked for Jacoby Sarto among the crowd. She didn't see him; and by the time the dart-shaped passenger liner had finished its tour of the capital bug, she had put him and his cryptic comments out of her mind.