She could not get through this, and away from these aliens, fast enough.
Zeela sat back down between Talis and the spokesalien, produced the ring, now free of its pouch, from one of her long sleeves, and placed it on a ceramic stand on the table. She gestured to it with one of her smaller hands.
“I stand in witness to the authenticity of the item,” she said.
The aliens leaned forward. Curiosity was universal, it seemed. Talis saw the hand of their veiled leader twitch in its lap, but it did not reach out. She remembered how the alien ship had plunged into the flotsam. Couldn’t help but imagine a full ship’s crew of these bony devils. She had a moment to appreciate that they were here to buy the ring and not outright take it.
In Talis’s mind, the price for the ring was going up in direct proportion to the amount of time she had to spend in this unsettling company.
Get a grip, she told herself. Business, business. Breathe. This meeting won’t last forever.
The alien representative spoke again.
“With a price for the item,” the alien’s translator relayed after a moment. “Prepared with precious metal and stone in value like seventy-five thousand your coin.”
Talis looked at Zeela, head turning so quickly she felt something pop in her neck, and the sensation of icy fire traced the tendons up to the base of her skull. Vein were one thing. Vein left you in awe. Vein didn’t make your skin feel like it wanted to pull free from your body and leave you behind if you didn’t have the sense to run. The deep breath Talis had been taking seemed lost somewhere on its way to her lungs.
And now the translator made mockery of their currency conversions.
“Could they rephrase that?” Her voice was calm, level. Detached from the part of her mind that begged to vault the colorful upholstered cushions and be gone from the room.
“I believe,” said Zeela calmly, slow as pouring syrup, “the honorable representative from the Yu’Nyun ship is offering you the trade equivalent of seventy-five thousand silver presscoins, in the form of silver bullion and precious gemstones.”
The alien listened as Zeela’s words were converted to painful hisses and clicks. Then it looked to Talis, and waited.
It was a good thing the aliens didn’t expect Talis to speak on her own behalf. She was on the verge of panicked laughter. It threatened to break through her outward calm.
The aliens wanted to pay almost double what the ring was worth. Though worth was becoming more and more difficult to peg when it came to this item. To her, it was rubbish. Rubbish she had hinged her future on. Rubbish that had cost the world a Breaker life. Perhaps the aliens had no concept of fair value, or of exchange rates, for the translator to muck up.
She opened her mouth to tell Zeela she accepted the offer. Or should she counter it? Did the aliens barter?
“Also,” the alien appended to its statement before Talis could speak. “Request wise lady captain sell additional service.”
Damn. And there it is.
Built into that generous sum of money, which she’d surely regret to walk away from, was going to be another item. Another service. Something she suspected she wasn’t going to like. How would she signal her refusal to Zeela? Cough? Kick her in the leg?
Zeela spoke. Her tone was level as before, but the words were clipped and her accent heavier. “What does the Yu’Nyun representative require of the esteemed captain?”
“Take us to meet your gods.”
The translator made a valiant effort on the grammar. Best sentence so far. Too bad it had completely flubbed the message. Talis looked to Zeela.
“I think that was mistranslated again.”
“Not,” droned the alien through its device. “We take many tries, since arrive. Approach four government. All religion spokespersons. Learn many topics surround your deities. Very curious your planet structure. Very curious your planet history. Buy many your artifacts from many times. Information is missing. Your gods witness missing information, complete our research. Exploration we seek knowledge. Interview with gods serve last information to complete our mission.”
It was well known that the aliens had been curious about Peridot. Poring over libraries, excavating ruins, collecting whatever information they could. It was even rumored that the aliens had visited the Rakkar alchemists in their subterranean laboratories. Unlocking Peridot’s secrets, apparently. The gods would certainly be able to provide any of the missing pieces of information.
This time the laugh really did almost escape from Talis’s mouth. The Divine Alchemists barely communicated with their own followers. They definitely didn’t conduct interviews.
She felt that seventy-five thousand evaporate before she even got to touch it.
How do you know The Five’s interests? something in her head asked. Maybe they’d like to meet the alien visitors.
If they wanted to meet the aliens, she argued with herself, they’d have done it. Gods don’t wait for an invitation.
Everyone in the room was looking at her, she realized. Waiting for her reply.
“If the governments of our planet each refused to sponsor an audience request with The Five,” said Talis, carefully, “what makes you think that I have the ability to provide such access?”
The alien in finery moved then. It lifted its veil, then reached out with a spindly finger and ran the tip along the edge of the battered ring.
“You already do more what your government cannot.”
It turned its head to look at Talis directly. She shrank, inwardly, from the strange sapphire eyes, wide as Zeela’s own sightless ones, but all darkness. No
