Reclamation

"The laws of this planet have acknowledged our ownership of your body," said Basq. He said it evenly and with no effort to keep his voice down. Aria's throat tightened. It didn't matter what anybody else heard. Even without her help, the Vitae had learned the language of the Realm. With a garbled accent and mangled tenses, but there was no mistaking it.

"Wherever Zur-Iyal has sent you will not receive you."

Aria said nothing. They were the center of attention for all the other passengers, but none of them had moved. The Vitae could pick her up bodily and haul her out of the bus and they still wouldn't move. Here, the Vitae were the Nobles and, like them or hate them, very few would be seen to act openly against them. Aria could not look for help from any of these strangers. Then she remembered the sound of spitting from the back of the bus.

But neither can they.

"Wipe your destination from the list, Aria Stone," said the Round One.

Aria spread her hands flat on her thighs. "Maybe you can take me away with you," she said. "Maybe you can destroy those the Nameless have sent to rule the Notouch and claim the Realm for yourselves, but I'll be dead and drowned before I'll help you do it."

The Vitae stayed silent for a moment. Aria saw Round One's lips move minutely, as if she were working out what Aria had just said. When she finally got it, her mouth stiffened into a straight line. Aria felt her own mouth twist into a smile.

The destination at the top of the list flashed and a chime sounded. The bus slowed to a halt. The doors opened.

Aria yanked the cattle prod off her belt and shoved the tip against the Round One's hand. The Vitae screamed as the shock hit. Aria dived out the open door.

"Aunorante Sangh!" Basq snarled.

Her shoes hit the pavement at the same time the words hit her ears and she nearly fell. The strange feel of this place could still rob her of her balance all too easily. She started to run. If she could keep upright, she could nearly outpace the bus itself.

The artificial lights the Kethran loved robbed the evening of its sheltering shadows and turned it gold and scarlet, pink and grey. Her only chance at safety was distance between her and the Vitae. Blurred faces jumped in and out of her line of vision. The weird light confused her eyes. A shoulder banged against her and she toppled to the ground. Hands touched her and she jabbed the prod at them. Shouts and curses she didn't have time to understand whirled around her.

Aria scrambled to her feet and staggered into a fresh run. Already her lungs burned from trying to suck down enough thin air to keep her going. Her muscles barely noticed the effort of running now, but they would when she stopped.

Aria ducked around a corner, and then another, not trying to maintain any kind of sense of direction, just trying to get out of sight.

Stars swam in front of her vision and solid blackness began to creep in around the edges. Aria stumbled to a halt and leaned against a carved stone fence that bordered a flower bed. She wheezed and gasped, trying to drag enough air into her dry lungs to clear her vision.

Blast Kethran. Blast the Vitae. Blast my ambitions and blast the Nameless for forcing them on me.

When her head stopped spinning, Aria raised her eyes. The bright white lights and red-and-gold street signs proclaimed that this was one of the quarters where the First Families lived. In the middle of the Amaiar Division, it was close enough to the entertainment and stores that they didn't have to take buses to get out and busy themselves with their fellows. In her work-stained clothes, she'd quickly be spotted and told to prove she had a need or a right to be here.

Already, faces were turning toward her with quizzical and hostile glances. But there were no Vitae either in front of her or behind her.

They're not quite ready to chase me through the streets yet, obviously. Aria knuckled her bleary eyes.

"All right now, Stranger."

Aria jerked her hands away from her eyes. A yellow-jacketed man walked through the gate in the fence and approached her until she could smell the stink of peppers on his breath and see the glint of authority in his brown eyes.

Aria levered herself away from the fence and had to stop herself from dropping reflexively onto her knees.

"You sick?" he asked. "Been robbed?"

"No, sir," she croaked, trying to stand up straight. "Just lost."

"Then you get yourself found." He pointed toward the octagonal pillar of a public communications console, "Or I'm calling a security team down here to clean you off my street." He tapped his ear meaningfully.

Aria licked her dry lips. "Yessir."