Looking at Trouble (3 page)

“I will give you opportunity to prove yourself. We won’t have to wait long.”

They stood together and chatted. As Reeda predicted, there was an attempt on one of the scarves. Mertwyn moved in a blur, and she caught the thief two steps away from the kiosk. The scarf was jutting from under the shirt, and the new assistant’s fingers simply gripped it and let go of the young man.

Reeda smiled as Mertwyn put the scarf back on the rack, tying it loosely in a knot over the rod.

“Well done. Where did the recruiter find you?”

“I was on a list to act as an assistant to any of the Citadel staff while they visited. She asked and I agreed. I have always wanted to work with a l’nal.”

“Mother can be difficult, but she has a good heart. Do you speak l’nal?”

“No, but I am willing to learn.”

“Good. We will engage in lessons for the rest of the afternoon, or did you need something to eat?”

“I am ready to start learning.” Mertwyn smiled.

“Step one, when smiling, keep your teeth in. She doesn’t like to read expressions; she likes to hear tone and cadence. It is a hard reflex to stop, but you will hear about it fairly quickly.”

Reeda spent the afternoon watching Mertwyn deal with customers and teaching her simple l’nal phrases that Mother used a lot.

At the end of the day, they went to the peacekeeper station to pick up Mertwyn’s bag of clothing, and from there, they went to public transport.

Reeda led Mertwyn to the workshop, and she knocked on the door. The latch moved and Mother swayed in the entrance.

“Mother, are you ill?” There was green around her mandibles, and she didn’t look well.

“No, daughter. I am making you a gift. It took more out of me than I anticipated.”

Mother lowered herself, and they stood head to head for a moment. “You have brought me a snack?”

Reeda chuckled. “No, Mother. She is your new assistant; her name is Mertwyn.”

Mertwyn heard her name and she bowed deeply. “I am honoured to be here and working with you, Madame Rrkra.”

“Tell her to get me something to eat.”

Reeda winced. “I was hoping to start her off a little more easily.”

“She will have to do it. I am getting too old to hunt my own meals.”

“Fair enough. Excuse me, Mother. I have to explain this to her. Do you want it live?”

“Only if you love me, daughter.”

Mother withdrew and closed the door again.

Reeda turned to Mertwyn and sighed. “We need to go and get one of the animals in the high field. Mother is hungry.”

Mertwyn blinked. “Oh, she likes live food?”

“Once or twice a month. She will eat one of the beasts and then supplement with the protein snacks for the rest of the time. I get my meals in town most days.”

Reeda went to the barn and swung the doors open.

“If you don’t keep beasts in the barn, why do you have them?”

Reeda grinned. “Mother doesn’t like to eat in the house. It is messy and she is exceptionally neat.”

“Why do you have to hunt?”

“She is old. She is a l’nal outcast and has never had a mate or offspring. It worked in my favour, as she has never had to feed her own family. That is when the l’nal weavers get a little on the cranky side.”

“Why was she outcast?”

Reeda shrugged. “She lost part of one of her legs. It took her out of the running for a mate.”

Reeda took down a long, soft rope and a smaller looped rope.

“What are you going to do?”

“The same thing you will. I know you can use your spikes to subdue creatures, but I am not sure how Mother would react to the change in taste created by your particular brand of toxin.”

Mertwyn scowled. “Is that why you chose me?”

Reeda chuckled. “When I leave, Mother will miss me, and an emotionally upset l’nal is unpredictable. She has warned me of that herself. Your species doesn’t taste good. She will only bite if she has to.”

Mertwyn laughed. “It is nice to be needed.”

They hiked through the property until the field was visible. Mertwyn paused. “Those are hava beasts.”

Reeda shook out the rope and looked at the fanged and clawed grouping of over a hundred animals.

“They are deadly. Flesh eaters.”

Reeda nodded. “If you don’t want this position, you are welcome to resign and we will see if Recruiter Ambroth can find another assistant.”

Mertwyn sighed. “Tell me what to do.”

Reeda loved the resigned enthusiasm. “All right. First, stay downwind, and second, be ready to move.”

Mertwyn stepped with her and followed her every command. By sundown, they had their prey and were dragging two live beasts between them with the ropes.

It took them half an hour to get the hava beasts to the barn, but once they were inside, Reeda closed the rear doors and locked them then moved with Mertwyn to the front doors, closed one and then flipped the rope off the beasts with a few practiced gestures.

The animals rose to their feet and charged, but Reeda got the door closed and latched an instant before the hava beasts collided with the wood. Claws fought the wood, but it wouldn’t do any good.

Mertwyn finally asked a question that had obviously been bugging her. “Why hava beasts? They are hated across the globe.”

Reeda smiled. “That is why. She kills them quickly, but you have to get them here, and it is considered to be a form of cruelty by some. As soon as you say it is hava beasts, they are fine with it.”

She patted Mertwyn’s shoulder gingerly. “Let’s get your bag and tell Mother.”

Reeda knocked on the workshop door, and once again, a swaying Mother answered. “We have two beasts for you. You look exhausted and you need to eat.”

Mother nodded. “I agree. Thank you.”

The door opened wide, and Mother staggered out and headed toward the barn. The thudding from the interior ceased when Mother got to it.

She released the lock and took up the space of the two open doors. After she had entered the barn, her hindmost legs closed the doors.

“Come inside. We can wash off the stink of the hava, and I can show you where the food is. Mother doesn’t need to eat often, but when she does, it is completely silent. Eerie, really.”

It was a good time to show Mertwyn to her room and give her an orientation for the household.

While she showered, Reeda imagined what Mother was up to, but she would have to wait. If it was a present, she didn’t want to ruin the surprise.

Two days later, Mertwyn was on her way to the kiosk on her own while Mother and Reeda said their goodbyes.

“Come, daughter. I have been eager to show you this.”

Reeda had her pack over her shoulder, and she swallowed around the lump in her throat. She followed her mother to the workshop and stepped inside for the first time since she had dropped off the weeds.

In the centre of the large room, a mannequin stood, and it was dressed in a shirt, trousers and had a long coat over top of them. The entire outfit was made in black, but there was no dye bath visible.

Mother stroked her face. “Do you like it?”

“You made this for me?”

“Who else? The silk is special. It will deflect knives and absorb the power of even a burner at close range. That is what the weed was for. It causes a chemical reaction that changes my silk.”

Reeda smiled and stroked the coat with a loving hand. Tears flicked down her cheeks. “It is wonderful. Thank you, Mother.”

“Take it off the dummy, love. You need to be on your way before I get too upset.”

Reeda turned to her mother and inclined her head.

Mother pressed her head to Reeda’s. “Be good, be strong, and I will count the days until you come home, full of adventures.”

“I have to train first.”

“You will complete your training in no time. Send me communications. I want to hear from you, daughter.”

“I will be in touch, Mother, and I will wear this clothing proudly.”

The clacking of laughter burst out. “Not if you don’t take it off the dummy. I am going for a walk. You go. I love you and am proud of you, now go.”

With a last touch of her mother’s furry arm, she turned and stripped the dummy, packing the silk away in a small canister inside her pack. It compressed to almost nothing, but she could still feel the strength.

She paused, took the coat out of the canister and walked out of the workshop, closing the wide door carefully behind her. She could feel the eyes of her mother on her as she left the house and property, heading for the public transportation station.

Reeda left the place where she had grown up and got on the transport toward an uncertain future. It only took her ten minutes to stop crying.

Citadel Balen was a good place to study, though when she was assessed, sending her to the new Citadel at Teklan had also been discussed. Her skills would be useful in the law enforcement vein, but at Balen, they had something else in mind.

Balen was training her to use her personality-analysis skills in conjunction with her physical capabilities to identify the nature of talents by touching skin. Her instructors were sure that it would eventually be possible for her to use the analysis from a distance.

Making friends was surprisingly easy. Everyone around her had talents, some had the small, fluffy creatures known as Yaluthu, and others were eager to learn control.

Reeda never thought about it, but living on Amdor, she had the ability to use her talent any time she needed to; she just had to record it if it impinged on the body of another person. It had been a revelation to learn that other worlds had restrictions on their population’s ability to use the potential they had been born with.

“Reeda, what are you doing this afternoon?” Camya sat across from her and grinned.

“I have the afternoon off. I was going to spend it in the combat simulator.”

“Skip that. L’kha and I are heading over to the Guard base across the valley. She has to get a medical scan, and we can check out the guardsmen while we are there.”

Reeda looked over at Camya in surprise. “Why do you want me there?”

Camya sighed. “Honestly? You can fly the skimmer. L’kha is hopeless and I suck.”

Reeda nodded now that she knew the parameters. “Fine. What time?”

Camya looked hopeful. “In half an hour?”

“Fine.”

Camya patted her hand and fluttered off with her robes flapping.

Reeda snorted and resumed reading a treatise on l’nal trade negotiations with the Alliance.

When the thirty minutes were up, she turned off her data pad and got up from the table with her robes swirling around her. She couldn’t flap. Her mother had raised her right.

Reeda met the other two women outside, and they went to take one of the Citadel skimmers out and cruised across the valley. The controls were simple, and she set a path to avoid interaction with the flying members of the Yaluthu species.

Her two passengers were giggling in anticipation of meeting one of the Guards. Reeda simply flew over, landed the skimmer and got out, leaning against the hull while she resumed her education.

“Aren’t you going to come in?” Camya paused for a moment.

“Nope. This is your adventure. I am just here for the skimmer.”

Camya sighed. “You need to start dating.”

“In my own time, Camya. You go on and raid the commissary.”

Reeda resumed her reading, and her friend ran inside the base.

She had been outside for an hour when another skimmer landed. Four men jumped out of the skimmer and headed for the base.

She heard their joking around in Alliance Common, but they were speaking with a Nyal Imperium accent. One of them slowed and turned toward her as he passed. She was watching the boots approach over the edge of her data pad.

“Hello, miss. Are you waiting for someone?”

She looked up and blinked at the man with the soft-green skin. Abrukan. She glanced over, and his friends were of the same colouration. “I am waiting for my friends to gradually flirt their way out of the building. I am just the pilot.”

He nodded and waved his friends on.

One of them called out in Nyal Common, “You can’t take her home, Bilro.”

She didn’t let her comprehension show on her face. “I think your friends want you to go with them.”

He chuckled. “They can start lunch without me. You are with the Citadel?”

She nodded. “I am. I am still a novice.”

“Have you been here long?”

She quirked her lips. “A few weeks.”

“So, you have a lot of training to go through.”

Reeda shrugged. “Probably.” She was just waiting for an assignment now, but they still hadn’t decided where precisely they wanted to put her.

“My name is Bilro Dakma.” He extended his hand, palm up.

She put her hand on top of his, “Reeda Rrkra.”

“Your family is named after the l’nal queen?”

Reeda chuckled. “Apparently. I was just reading up on it.” She lifted the data pad.

He smiled at her, and she jerked her hand away.

“l’nal history?”

She smiled. “Yes. I am familiar with them, but I didn’t have access to a lot of records back home. This is my favourite part of being at the Citadel.”

“You are interested in education?” He leaned next to her on the skimmer.

“I am. I participated in the family business at home. Now, it is time to continue my education.”

“If you ever met a l’nal, you would be less interested in their history and more interested in their eating habits.”

She smiled slightly. “I have known a l’nal. The eating habits do take some getting used to.”

“Really? I am impressed.”

“Don’t be.” She quirked her lips. “You and your friends are here to visit?”

He chuckled. “We are Guardians preparing to take our posts across our star system. We are here to engage in safe hand-to-hand combat with willing Guards.”

She smiled. “Good to know.”

“What is your talent?”

She shrugged. “I can determine motivations and do personality assessments.”

“What did you read with me?”

Reeda chuckled. “Nothing. I have also learned to tuck it away when I don’t need it. That was the big breakthrough.”