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trust at the best of times, and recently you've been a real pain in the ass."
"Then what are you going to do?" Kaisho asked, a bit smugly.
"Um," I said. "Give me a second."
In my mind, I tried to imagine a stench that would make moss wither... like
really bad breath, something that could knock you straight off your feet,
except that it'd only work on Balrogs. The Balrog could obviously smell stuff
humans couldn't, like royal pheromone; so maybe I could produce a stink so
powerfully awful to Balrog senses, the moss would kind of shrivel. Not die I
didn't want it to die. I just wanted to turn its stomach. If I started with
its own buttered-toast scent and pictured the toast going all green and
moldy...
"Teelu,"Kaisho said sharply. Talking out loud, not whispering. "Stop it!"
"Stop what?" I asked, trying to sound innocent.
"You know what," Kaisho snapped, "but youdon't know what you're doing. Given
time, you might find something that would cause serious harm."
"What's she talking about?" Festina asked me.
"Teeluand I are playing a little game," Kaisho answered, "and he doesn't
understand his own strength. Biochemicals can be more than smells, Your
Majesty one species' pheromone is another species' poison. If you muck about
too much, you might hurt someone... and it could be humans just as easily as
Balrogs."
"What?" Festina demanded. She stared straight at me. "What are you doing?"
"His own form of diplomacy," Kaisho said. "Talk softly and carry a big
stink."
Festina looked like she wanted more answers; but at that moment, the moss in
front of us simply rolled aside. A parting of the glowing red sea. The spores
in the center of the ramp slid right or left, till they left a clear walkway
up the middle-bare concrete floor, walled on either side by heaps of glowering
fuzz. The buttered-toast smell turned a bit edgy... as if even a higher
lifeform could get ticked off.
"Did you do that?" Festina asked me. I shook my head as Kaisho answered, "I
did. Or rather, the Balrog did it at my request. Go ahead the moss will leave
you alone. I promise."
"She promises," Tobit muttered. "That fills me with loads of confidence."
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"You two stay here," Festina told Tobit and Dade. "Edward and I will go in.
If anything happens to us like we get our toes bitten by spores arrest that
bitch for assaulting an admiral. Even if the Balrog is sentient, I have faith
the High Council can devise an appropriately unattractive punishment." She
lifted her hand to her throat implant. "You heard that, Kaisho?"
"You lesser species can be so suspicious. I said the Balrog would leave you
alone, and it will. It won't try to touch you as long as you're on this
orbital."
"Great," Festina muttered. "That sounds like those promises the gods always
gave in Greek myths loaded statements with nasty loopholes. But," she
continued, staring at the open path through the moss, "I would dearly like to
ask a Fasskister what the hell happened here."
She looked at me, as if I had some kind of deciding vote. I thought of what
Captain Prope would say if we came running back at the first sign of
trouble... not that I cared about my own reputation, but I didn't want Festina
to look bad. "Let's go," I said.
So we did.
The ramp led to another hatch that should have been closed but wasn't it had
jammed partway open, leaving a gap in the middle. Our path through the moss
led right up to the gap and beyond.
"Looks like the Balrog has fouled up the gears," Festina said, examining the
hatch.
"Do doors have gears?" I asked.
"Don't go literal on me," she answered.
We squeezed through the gap and into a world glowing crimson. At one time,
this must have been a pretty standard orbital forty square kilometers of land
on the cylinder's inner surface, a lot of it dedicated to parks and
agriculture. Orbitals always go heavy on the fields and forests, so people
don't fixate on being closed in; even if you can see the other side of the
cylinder overhead, it's not so bad if you're surrounded by trees and grass.
So the Fasskisters' home had probably been filled with their own native [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]