exactly a terrible thing. 'If I should now pay you faceprice, please tell me.'
Ondway looked at him with some surprise. 'That is a noble offer, Con'hr,' he said, 'but let us put it by for the moment. Let me talk to my folk.'
He turned away. Gabriel turned, too, to find Enda covering her eyes briefly. 'Are you all right?' he asked.
'Yes,' she said very softly, 'but Gabriel, Ondway is related to the Devli'yan clan, a cousin of Devlei'ir himself. His faceprice would be easily equivalent to the whole cost of Sunshine . . . probably more.' Gabriel swallowed, then said, 'Uh. Yes, well.' He looked away into the forest, trying to look like someone absently enjoying the morning's beauties, and thought, When will I learn to just not say anything?
Gabriel sat down on a fallen tree-trunk, then got up hurriedly, brushed his pants off, and sat down again a little further down the tree. Some of the bugs here were really big. What surprised him was that they didn't even seem to mind being sat on.
Recovering, he glanced around him and said, 'If I got my counting right, we're not much more than six or seven kilometers from Redknife.'
'A long way through jungle and rain forest,' Enda said, 'especially for those not used to such travel, or those who are unsure of the way.' She sounded dubious.
'Oh, I wasn't thinking of escaping,' Gabriel said. 'I don't think we need to worry about that at the moment, but all these people appeared so quickly after we came down.' He glanced at the sesheyans all around them. 'There must be a lot more sesheyans living in the forest immediately around the settlement than we thought.'
'It would not surprise me,' Enda said. 'Many have retreated into the forests, not only because they prefer the ancient hunting and wandering lifestyle, but because they prefer not to be easily counted by those who would have less than benevolent reasons for doing so. Here the forest protects them as it would have in the deeps of time, on Sheya the ancient, much to the annoyance of their enemies.' She smiled a little, an oddly satisfied look.
After a little while Ondway came back to them and sat down beside Gabriel on the fallen tree, rustling his wings down about him until he was cloaked. 'Well,' he said, 'you have caused inconvenience, but it can be worked around. Indeed it must be, for naturally the central ship-tracking system noticed that you did not arrive at Redknife as scheduled.' 'They'll be sending someone to look for us,' Gabriel said.
'As to that,' said Ondway with a grin, 'we, or some of us anyway, are the 'someones' they would send, and if we report that we cannot find you, well. . .' He shrugged. 'Wide are the forest's ways, and even the Wanderer is sometimes lost: a weary time to find the ways again, when every fern holds its shadow... '
Enda smiled. 'And in the meantime, we will have our 'few days' rest.''
'While your poor machine is prepared to be hauled out of where it rests. No one from Redknife would bother venturing this way until those of us who are forestwalkers told them there was some reason. Even with positive satellite tracking, there would be no point in attempting a rescue until we told them it was safe.' Ondway rustled his wings again. 'Safe from what?' Gabriel asked.
Ondway produced that feral grin once more. 'From us. Why, Con'hr, there are unstable tribal elements even in this part of the world, reckless, uncontrollable sesheyans who do not obey the rule of law and who pay no fealty to Concord or to any other force moving in these spaces-dangerous pirates and criminal types, smugglers and racketeers, and regular savages.' The grin gentled somewhat. 'But some of them walk in the cities,' Enda said, 'under very different guise.'
'Well, that is true,' Ondway agreed, and stretched his wings out. then let them drop again in a gigantic shrug. 'I myself am based in Diamond Point normally, working for a freight expediting company that subcontracts to various system-based firms. Some of them have ties with VoidCorp; some of them are independents. My citizenship is sourced on Grith, so that the Corpses cannot touch me-yet, but I am able to go freely about the system on the expediting company's business, handling various minor details of freight transfers, sometimes doing courier work for sensitive material. I might be anywhere within the course of a week or two, and no one would think anything of it.'
Gabriel digested that, knowing he was being told something of substance but not being certain exactly what as yet. At the time, though, he felt something familiar: the same itch or urge that had been moving under the surface of his thoughts and had suddenly caused him to say to Ondway, not so long ago, 'We'll be going back to Thalaassa.' It was as if he had heard something, not even whispered yet, but about to be. Something in the air...
Gabriel held still and quiet, trying to isolate that itch, that urge, trying to hear the whisper. Enda, noticing none of this, merely nodded at Ondway. ' 'Corpses,' ' she said, with that slight smile. 'Quite. And among your contacts you count Doctor Delde Sola.'
'We have been of use to one another occasionally before,' Ondway said. 'As now.'
'Yes. Well,' Enda said, 'such 'use' is certainly not without its price. Here we are, and you have helped us and are helping us. Well and good. How may we help you in return?'
Ondway looked at them both in a measuring way. 'Where had you thought to go after your stay here?' The air whispered to Gabriel. Something suddenly came together, made sense. The planet no one mentioned, the name no one spoke, even though it was right there in the neighboring starsystem. 'Rhynchus,' Gabriel immediately said, while Enda was still opening her mouth. Ondway looked at him in astonishment-and was there an edge of anger on the expression? 'Who told you about that?' he said, much more quietly than he had been speaking.
Gabriel was very tempted to say You did!-except that it would almost certainly be misunderstood, and he could hardly explain it himself. 'What is going on out there?' he asked, also more quietly. Ondway looked at him.
'Come on, Ondway,' Gabriel said. 'You can't convince me that VoidCorp has listening devices installed in the trees.'
Ondway was very still for a few moments. 'Though the doctor recommended you to me,' he said at last, 'she does not, cannot, even with all her resources, know everything about you-and believe me, within minutes of meeting you, she would have known much. Delde Sota was a Grid pilot before she was a doctor. Nor can I know everything, though I know what has been on the news services of late. They say you are a murderer and a spy.' 'The accusations are false,' Enda said.
'With respect, honored, were you there? No? Then how can you be sure?'
'The wise take their hearts' advice,' Enda said, 'even when the heart cannot provide hardcopy documentation, but I do see your point.'
Gabriel sat there and looked at the ground, while yet another huge bug trundled by. This is what the rest of your life will be like, said that voice buried down in his brain. No one ever again believing anything you say. Because of one carelessness, one episode of-
'Never mind,' Gabriel said then and looked up once more at Ondway. 'Let it pass. Maybe we'll go somewhere else.' But the look he gave Ondway was intended to suggest, And if you believe that, he thought, I have a few nice planets in the Solar Union to sell you.
Ondway shrugged his wings. 'Perhaps it would be wiser. Meantime, we will take a few days for the 'search parties' to 'find you.' Then we will arrange transport for your ship back to Redknife-' 'You ought to let us see if she can be made to lift,' Enda interrupted. 'There was nothing wrong with her drive when we shut it down. Our main worries were about structural integrity, and a short flight to the spaceport should not be beyond her abilities.' She glanced over at Gabriel.
He nodded. 'There was that control surface problem I mentioned, but lifting her slowly and not trying anything showy, just limping her in-that shouldn't be a problem.'
Ondway thought about that for a moment. 'Well, it might be wiser to bring her in via ground transport anyway, annoying as that will be. It might look 'more in character' and would suggest that she is worse damaged than she is if you desire to remain here longer.'
'It would also be much more expensive,' Enda said, giving Ondway one of those grandmotherly looks. 'Not that the transport teams would mind, I am sure. But let us at least check the drive and see how the situation looks in a few more days.'
Ondway gestured with his wings, a movement like someone putting their hands up helplessly in the air, and then he chuckled. 'Honored, let it be as you say. Meanwhile, have you eaten?'
'Only the cold grain porridge that everyone else had this morning,' Enda replied before Gabriel could get his
