45 - Ye clackin' Fer a Chillin'?

Terry found himself standing in a strange, dim blue space, with the odd white flickers all above his head, reflecting off the thin skiff of water far below.  The harsh white sun was a blinding arc of light before him and he could barely see a ring of boats silhouetted against that, but they were curiously still for boats.

“What is this?” The air was astonishingly moist and he drew in a deep breath, hard enough to pull his veil against his nose and lips.  He could feel his skin relaxing from its dry, tight pull across the bones of his face.

Kyrus was steadily climbing down toward the water.  “The Basin.  Come on.  The pumps can only keep this much water in’t from the river.  When the rains come, spring and fall, it fills up to nearly the ceiling and is clean enough to swim in." He waved a hand at the scum of water below. "Dry season pumped crud, maybe a metre deep. Maybe.  The floor of the city is domed to catch the rains and usually people don’t lose their boats against the ceiling or washed over the edge.  But we try tah cram as much water in under here as we can.”

“I… can see that.”

The central column of the city had a ribbed appearance, with striations running all away around, as well as all kinds of ladders hanging from the ceiling above like insect tails. The siwion settled on a ledge off to one side of the ladder.

“This is where we can talk privately.  If I’m going to be telling you all kinds of ranno , sorry, that means guano… I figured this would be the best place.”  Terry settled down on the cool stone that was surprisingly clean.  No mud or grit or dirt at all.  He wasn’t sure what he should say, so did the thing that had saved his life - kept his mouth shut.

“You being all ‘Hive Lord’ staring down your nose at us, insulting the lot of us as those who can’t read…” Kyrus sighed.  “I was a basin rat hangin’ round down here to not fry in the sun, sold my body to an old man, to earn enough money to see my mother safe, to pay for me to learn how to read and to speak properly. Money to travel to Milar, though most of my way there I walked."

"I was lowest of the low and now I’m struggling to learn everything I need to be a help to my father in this war, to be the best warrior I can be, to be the man of integrity like my father and my father by marriage.” His voice hissed and echoed around them as he spoke, quietly, intensely, clearly forcing every word. Terence could barely feel the rumble of the city pumps deep inside, fighting the weight of every drop pumped from so far below.

“With my grandfather’s laws about that… men and men… if they’d a’ caught me I’d have been ‘exposed’ for a day for a first offense… that’s hung in one of them cages on t’ bridge.”  His breath caught.  “Day and a night for second offense… and sent to be ‘retrained’… locked up and used as hard labour basically till you'd paid the oath that you’d been reformed.  Third time they’d put you out for three days.  Nobody lives longer than that, once you’ve been shaved top and tail and put in the sun.”

“That’s hideous!” Terry had been biting his tongue but that burst out of him.

Kyrus’s smile flashed.  “I’m glad you think so… and I’m glad the law was changed so Da and Pa could marry… I had a right horror of myself and them too.  Hara helped me with that… in fact the Milar attitude helped me with that.  Zon Elemfias’d kick my ass should I profess such prejudice…” His language had shifted again, to what the Milari teachers had wanted of him.  Mom had been translating in Terry’s head and had actually programmed Lainz into him, but when Kyrus shifted to Milari, Terry had lost the first few words.

“I…” Terry gulped.  “Are you sure this is what your father meant? Tis raw, Kyrus.  I shouldn’t know this of you!”

“You can’t unknow it.  But you’ll know not to casually call me or anyone Illiterate.  We all paid a great deal to learn… my Da’s and Granda’s lin has made it not only possible for everyone to be literate but required to be literate.  To be illiterate is now the worst curse.”

“I… was raised as the second son of a Second Class Citizen.  I have only the knowledge that Prime allowed… until I rebelled and  acquired Agador… I… I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t treat anyone badly, and I’m…” he shrugged helplessly.  “I don’t know how not to be…” he checked and said out loud indignantly to Mom’s suggestion in his head.  “I am not an arrogant snot!”  He coughed and glanced over at Kyrus.  “…am I?”

“I said you act like a Hive Lord.  Sometimes you sneer down your nose at Hara so hard ye could bounce a rock ofn that curve and hit orbit!”

“But I but… well… I…” He wound down into silence. A distance clicking noise and a plink.

“Ye… excuse me.  You have Mom, you have knowledge that we’ve all lost in our flight out here.  You are a valuable person, Terence.  You’ve just not given us much cause to like you.”

“Oh.” Terry felt as if he’d been hit over the head with a mandered board, though Kyrus had done no such thing.  “I’m… sorry.  Your people… both… all of them… have been so strange that I’ve been reeling ever since I got here.  No excuses.  I’ve been saying ‘What have I done,” every waking minute, though I had no other choice that I could see.  My brother flung me into Mom and away we went, bringing your young spies back… and I have no idea if Prime has killed them all or blamed them for the explosions and fires he set to cover my escape.” He threw his hands up and nearly lost his balance, clutching at the edge of the ledge he sat on.  “It’s all excuses.”

“Reasons, maybe.  I understand reasons.” *Intruders,* Mom said.

“Reasons?” A slick voice said from above them on the ladder.  “Heya, Ky-ry-ry, yah clackin’ fer a chillin’? Thet why you back sack rack?”

*Hello Kyrus,* Mom translated in Terence’s head. *Have you come back to get yourself killed?*