Part 34 (1/2)

Egan looked the least likely victor. He'd lost all his Western armies and now his capital. But he was tenacious. And now he had the experience of Li Yuan to guide him.

Then again, there was his grandfather, Josiah, to contend with. He had to win that battle even before he took the field against Coover. In the meantime, if accounts of the treaty they had made were true, Coover was bleeding Egan dry. Egan's only chance was a swift, decisive strike against Coover. And Coover knew it and was wary of it That was why he had sent Horton over, to see The Woman.

DeVore smiled. Coover thought he'd kept that secret

Not that I blame him, DeVore thought After all, a successful card player always stacks the deck in his own favour.

Trouble was, Coover was playing the wrong d.a.m.n game.

And aft the while I'm slapping down stones in his territory.

DeVore laughed aloud, amused by Coover's naivety. But what could one expect? He had not been bred to intrigue, and though he was both cunning and greedy, Coover was neither a subtle nor an intelligent man - not in the way that, say, he and Shepherd were intelligent And that, alas, would be Coover's downfall So Egan it was.

He sat back, surprised by how right the decision felt He would answer Coover in the affirmative, of course, for it would not serve his purpose to make an enemy of him straight away, yet he would let Egan know of his dealings with Coover -maybe send him copies of everything that pa.s.sed between them, to create a sense of openness between them. And in time he would send Egan a token of his friends.h.i.+p.

Horton's head, perhaps.

For now, however, he would keep it simple.

Setting down Egan's note, he took a sheet of his own headed paper and penned a quick response. Then, satisfied that he'd got just the right tone, he folded it in half, then half again.

As he finished, he looked up, to find Emtu standing there in the doorway. ”What is it, my love?””If s Horacek. He's called from Dusseldorf. He wants to see you tonight Says if s urgent Life or death.” ”Life or death, eh?” DeVore considered a moment, then shrugged. ”A plot, perhaps?”

”He would say nothing more.”

”Then tell him to come. And Emtu... is it true that Ben has gone?”

She nodded. ”If s true. He went an hour back.”

”How strange. Did he leave a note?”

Emtu shook her head.

”Well,” DeVore said, 'Tm sure he had his reasons. But if he calls, put him through, even if I'm sleeping. There's something I want to talk to him about.” She nodded then withdrew.

DeVore sat there a moment longer, then stood. Horacek, eh? The rat-boy he'd made Marshal. Now what in the G.o.ds' names did that little creep want? A plot. I bet you it's a plot. Some of my generals, III warrant, < want=”” to=”” do=”” away=”” with=”” me.=”” or=”” so=”” h.e.l.l=””>

DeVore smiled. Maybe one of them insulted the little monster and this was his way of paying them back - to blacken their name the same way the fire had blackened his face.

If so, he would play along ... this time. But Horacek was running out of rope. Daniel might have fled to the Wilds, but there'd be another boy who'd fit the bill And he, in time, would replace the odious Horacek. For there were always replacements: an endless line of them, hungry to serve. The messenger waited just outside the door. ”Here,” he said. ”Take this to Egan's man. You know where.”

”Master!” The man took the folded note and bowed low, then backed away, hastening to run his errand.

Servants, everywhere he looked servants. Even Emtu, for all she looked like Emily Ascher, was but a servant - a plaything.

And that, more than anything, was why he wanted the real Emily, alive. Because she had defied him. For the very fact that she had refused to serve him, as others had always served.

And when he had her ... what then? He did not know. Indeed, he had never known.

Yet he would have her. In time. Yes, everything would come to him in time.

”Well?” Daniel asked after an awkward silence. ”What do you want to know?”

”What if s like in there?”

”Like?” He gave a tiny laugh, then looked down, his face sober. ”You must know what if s like, surely?”

Emily watched him, her eyes noting every nuance of his body language. She could see that even talking about this was painful, but she needed to know. She needed as complete a picture of what DeVore was doing as she could get if she was going to come up with a half-decent strategy.

”Ifs different,” he said. ”I mean, not just different, but different. When you go in through those gates if s as if you were in another universe entirely. Even the sky overhead seems different. And the boys ... the boys are like machines. Jou chi ch'i, the guards call them sometimes.”

”I know the term,” Emily said. ”Meat machines.” ”Right,” Daniel said. ”But if s like everything in there's deliberately reducing the boys to that state. To the suppression of the instinct of decency.” Emily sat back a little, surprised to hear him say that Surprised not by the idea so much as the way he articulated it ”Daniel, can you read?” He hesitated, then nodded.

”And you learned that in the camp?”

”No.” He looked down, the smallest hint of vulnerability in the gesture suggesting to Emily that she had hit upon something. ”Then how ...?”

She stopped, understanding coming to her. Was that why Daniel was different from the rest?

”Daniel... were you quite old when you first went to the camps?””Older than most” She waited, but he would not go on, nor would he look at her. ”Then you knew your parents?”

He hesitated, then gave the tiniest of nods.

Emily closed her eyes, wondering if she should really push this. She knew from her own experience how tender such wounds were and how they never really healed, for all the care - all the mending - one lavished on them. She looked at him again, seeing at once how he held himself, his shoulders set, as if to fend off the whole world.

No wonder he's f.u.c.ked up.

But then they were all f.u.c.ked up, those who lived in DeVore's world. There was no normality in his universe.

”I'm sorry,” she said quietly.

”If s okay.”

'The camps ...”

He looked up suddenly, the hurt in his eyes surprising her. ”I've done things - terrible things - simply to survive. Things that I can't believe I was capable of doing. But every time it was as if I hurt myself. Every time it was a ... a violation.”

Emily saw how he shuddered and knew that it was no exaggeration. She could imagine it A young, sensitive child, torn from a loving home environment and thrown into a living h.e.l.l. It was a wonder he was even half sane. ”And Eden?”

Daniel laughed, then looked at her. ”They never understood. Five times they watched me and they never once saw it” ”Saw what?”

”They thought I was brave, but it was easy in there compared to the camps. I didn't have to feel, you see. I could exist on a single level. No complications. I wasn't... torn.”