132 - We'll Have This Talk, Later

Kyrus stood, soaked to the skin, miserable, steaming lightly and itching all over as the chem on his skin dried and crusted, listening to the extremely respectful argument going on over him. He was pretty much staring at the line of salts blooming along the toes of his boots. 

I’ve just called my da a coward and a deserter and implied worse and he didn’t hit me.  He stared at the Amir for declaring him Kraghanz and me Siwion before he kind of sighed and settled down to his heels and then when he talked to the basin guy it was like he somehow gained a planet’s weight of authority.

“Your Brilliance understands that his child is responsible for the pollution of a full half of the settlement’s drinking water!  This is a serious crime and must, somehow be fixed!  I’m going to be on that LIN after my shift... to the Sunrise Loggia.  Naser, I must!” He’s a brave man to stand by his duty when suddenly presented with a larval Queen and brood dropped in his lap and not just slither away.

“I do.  I am not trying to minimize the damage.  I should point out, however, that that alkaline sink hole and the freshwater seep would certainly have broken through at some point.  My son just happened to be trapped in the one when it did!” You're not mentioning that I might have speeded things up a little, or maybe triggered them...

The basin man threw up his hands.  “A freshwater seep... he’ll be credited with that for certain, Brilliance, but the pollution?  What are we to do?  We don’t have the filter capacity to clean all this water quickly enough!  We will need help!  Not just tax relief or some such.  This is a disaster for us!”

Kyrus could feel his gut tightened, almost as much as his skin.  The Emir-al had arrived and was being filled in, in a whisper, by the Amir.  His da was sounding so calm in the face of this disaster.  I’ve ruined half their water... and that’s not something you can farkin’ sweep out your door and forget.

**

“Amir... you just told this man... these people who exactly they are?  Why?  I thought we were going to try and get his Radiance’s approval, first?”  He raised one finger to show he wasn’t finished yet.  “You also wanted to keep things quiet in the hopes we could travel faster, correct?”

“Aye, Naser.”

“Then why did you speak up, openly?” His voice was showing signs of stress, cracking upwards.

“Na, Naser... te bakon’s out’d bag w’ this Lin thing.  Te border ‘kulu’d already sent it on.  No sense not takin’ advantage o’ the thing when te disaster’s this big.”

“Amir.”  Raghnall pinched the bridge of his nose.  “He’s doing well.  I suppose you are testing him.  But I believe that now would be advantageous for us if you should happen to have something in that ‘shiny’ bag of tricks of yours, to get us moving the instant this storm passes?”  He opened his eyes and stared directly at Dukir.  “I have every confidence in you,” he said pointedly.  “Amir.”  In a bakon’s arse are you an Amir – he did not add.  Good on you, lad.

Dukir smiled slightly.  “Why, Naser, why’d yeh think this lowly ‘un ‘d have somethin’ like that?  Seems I do... and if I frob it right, ‘it should work.”

“Frob.  Of course.”  The Emir-al stepped aside and waved at the little confrontation.  “Do proceed, Amir.”

“Aye, Naser.”

**

Da stood looking at the basin man talking to the Amir, who had stepped up and 'reminded' him of a lovely little filter program that he could give Quanat that would solve their problem... with his Radiance's blessing of course.

Ilax stood by him and everyone else, just drooping.  Having had most of their clothes sand flensed off them and being jammed in a mandered hide with nervous, carnivorous, war-birds and crawling through seeps eroded through the karst had everyone in a state, though the zon looked surprisingly fresh.

Ky couldn't say anything at all.  He'd said too much.  His da sighed and shrank again, to da-presenced.  "I need to get cleaned up and rest." His eye on his son was blood-shot and wildly tired.  "We obviously are going to have this talk, later."

"Yes, da," he managed. He was bruised from head to foot and barely managing to keep his feet. His head hurt.  His back hurt.  His wounds stung. He could feel Haraklez and Werfas at his back, hovering, but not touching him.  He felt as though a thousand kilometres of vacuum separated him from them.