“Then they need to move,” Nyx said, and hung up.
15
Burst sirens wailed out over Punjai; brilliant green burst tails lit up the black sky. Taite and Khos walked quickly, side by side, through the Mhorian district, one of the few parts of Punjai where neither of them stood out much. The faces were paler, the noses flatter, the shoulders broader, and most of the women on the street covered their hair with white scarves. A pity, really. The Mhorian district was the one place Taite ever saw hair that wasn’t black.
“How are we for time?” Khos asked.
Taite shook his head. He knew they were running a little late, and he knew he should have gone to his sister’s first, but he had set up this night with Mahdesh three days before. Mahdesh had been unreachable since then, out poking around some fallen space debris in the desert. Taite needed to speak to him in person. Inaya would have to wait.
Taite stepped over the threshold and into the Lunes Dansantes, a Ras Tiegan cafe that served Mhorian honeyed tea and kosher food for Khos in addition to saucy, spicy Ras Tiegan cuisine.
They both took off their sandals and piled them at the door with the others. Inside, the light was low, fresh glow worms in glass, and a woman sat with a small string band on a raised platform at the back of the cafe, singing a Ras Tiegan love song in a high, clear voice.
Taite looked out over the heads of the cigar-smoking crowd, a mixed group of men and women, mostly expatriates like him and Khos. He saw Mahdesh’s familiar shaggy head and slim profile and felt a surge of relief. Of course he would be here. Of course everything was all right.
“I’ll get us some drinks,” Khos said.
Taite nodded, and picked his way among the tables to Mahdesh’s side.
Mahdesh caught sight of him and grinned. He had the sort of grin that could fill a room. A smile that made Taite feel as if he were the only man in Nasheen.
They touched lips to cheeks, twice. Mahdesh kept hold of his elbow, still grinning. He was a little taller than Taite, broader in the shoulders, and had the clear, pale skin and even teeth of a half-breed inoculated Mhorian. Mhorians had no qualms about inoculating their half-breeds.
“Dangerous night?” Mahdesh asked, nodding toward Khos as they sat.
Taite sat close enough so their knees touched. It was as much prolonged public contact as they dared, even in the Mhorian district. Some Nasheenian women took violent offense to overly friendly men, no matter where they sat.
“Yes, I have to be quick tonight,” Taite said.
Mahdesh leaned back in his chair, winked. “I’m getting used to that.”
“We’re having some trouble with a note.”
“You mean Nyx is having some trouble with a note.”
Taite swallowed. “Yes.”
Khos arrived with drinks. Clear liquor for Taite and Mahdesh, amber honeyed tea for himself.
“How are you, stargazer?” Khos asked. He held out a hand to Mahdesh. They clasped elbows, and Khos leaned in and kissed his cheeks.
“I’ve been better. The city’s too hot for me.”
“It’s a good time to get out, then,” Khos said, and sat. “You told him yet?” he asked Taite.
“Nyx’s note is in trouble,” Taite said. “You and Inaya should leave the city tonight. Nyx’s sister was killed. She thinks whoever did it may be coming after our kin next.”
“Are you going to hold my hand, Taitie?” Mahdesh asked.
Taite felt himself redden. “I—”
Mahdesh reached under the table, squeezed his knee, and sobered. “I know. I’ll be all right. What does your sister think about it?”
“We’re going there after,” Taite said.
Mahdesh raised a brow. “Hope Khos is staying in the bakkie”
Khos snorted. “I’m doing it for Taite.”
“She doesn’t hate you, Khos. You just make her nervous,” Taite said.
“She hates me. She hates herself.”
“Don’t say that,” Taite said. God, his sister. “She needs to be looked after, all right? Khos, don’t fuck with me on this. Anything happens to me, look after her, will you?”
Mahdesh shook his shaggy head. “When will you let her grow up, Taitie? She’s nearly a decade your senior.”
“Take care of her,” Taite repeated, still looking at Khos.
Khos shook his head. “Come on, you’ll be fine. It’s why I’m out tonight.” He pulled down his tea in one swallow. “You two catch up. I’ll meet you outside. That singer’s voice grates.”
He stood, and moved back through the crowd.
Taite looked back at Mahdesh. Their eyes met. Mahdesh’s were steely gray, large and liquid. Taite wanted to stay there forever.
“This note… Inaya…”
“I understand,” Mahdesh said. “I have some work to do in Faleen at the docks, muddling over some repairs and doing some translation. I can bide my time until things here cool down. The border’s been a little warm anyway.”
Taite nodded. He reached for his drink and realized his hand was shaking. Why was he always such a coward when it came to these things? Why not say it all out loud?
Because they could kill us for it, Taite thought.
Mahdesh put his hand over Taite’s. “Go on. She needs you more than I do. I’ll be all right.”
Taite nodded. He stood. “We’ll be at a safe house. I’m not sure for how long.”
“Contact me when you can.”
“I will.”
Taite wanted to kiss him. The singer’s voice trailed off. The cafe patrons began to clap. Taite turned away and pulled up his burnous, even though it was dark and too warm. He didn’t want Mahdesh to see his face.
Taite left Khos with the bakkie and walked the two blocks over from the Mhorian district into the Ras Tiegan district. The change was subtle: a narrowing of the lanes, brighter colors out on the balconies, and the smell of curry that slowly came to dominate the stench of the streets as he walked.
A gang of women sat outside a bar and jeered at him as he passed. Most women didn’t bother him, even in the Ras Tiegan quarter, but he’d had some bad nights since he arrived in Nasheen a decade before: fourteen years old and starving, his only talent a predisposition for mucking around effectively inside the mechanical and organic bits of a com unit.
There were more men in this part of the city, but the crime rate was about the same as anywhere else in Nasheen. In Nasheen, Chenja, and most parts of Tirhan, stealing got you a limb chopped off, and a second offence barred you from replacing it. Blinding was popular for black market offenses, and he had gone just once to a public execution where a woman had her head cut off for killing a local magistrate who’d come to register her son for the draft. There had been a crowd at the execution, but they had not jeered or clapped or reveled in their bloodlust the way he thought they would. No, it was a sober occasion, somber, like a funeral. After, they had wrapped the woman in white and set her on fire.
Fewer people stayed for that part.
He found his sister’s tenement building—a squat brick-and-tile construction that must have dated back a century. Most of the tile had been stolen, leaving wounds of brick and mortar behind. The only renovations going on in Punjai were on the gun towers in the mosques and the military headquarters to the south.
Taite walked past the building on his first pass. He hung around the corner and waited to see if anyone had followed him. His parents had taught him a good deal before they’d managed to smuggle him out of Ras Tieg just
