backwards way. But it still hurt. He didn’t
want to get caught by her again—especially not with a body.
What would the Flame do, anyway? Chet looked
at them and did a double take. Both Flame were now of the fallow
race, a light brown normally found in Tache. To match Clementina?
Knife removed his hat, tossed it aside and drew himself to his full
height—and then some. Journey seemed taller, too, her chest
suddenly flatter.
Wait
. They really
were
growing
taller. Shapeshifting in preparation to take on the striding, manly
figure headed in their direction.
Clementina arrived at the pit with Tibbets,
the other graduate students flitting over with the air of kids
anticipating a fight in the school cafeteria. Clementina gave the
Flame a long, slow, once-over look. Roasting them. To Chet’s
surprise, they both stood up to the treatment. Neither broke eye
contact or tried to get a first word in. Masterful. Chet took a
step back, holding his breath.
“You have no right to be here, invited guests
or not. This is private property, and I own it outright. You are
trespassing. Leave now.” Clementina seemed obstinate and dangerous
as a doedicu: a large, foul-tempered beast with armor and
spikes.
“I’m so terribly sorry!” Professor Tibbets
said. He was the most flustered of everyone, wringing his hands.
Chet actually felt more sorry for him than he did the Flame, and
they’d each flown across Uos to get here. Tibbets continued,
“Perhaps I can make it up to you somehow...”
“It’s all right, Professor,” Journey said
softly, but her eyes were on Clementina.
“We are simple observers.” Knife’s manner was
more than calm, it was casual. Taking her measure? Chet noticed
he’d suddenly acquired a subtle but pronounced Tache accent—same as
Clementina herself. “What harm is there in letting us watch the dig
of the century unfold?”
Clementina’s face grew suffused. “Leave, or
I’ll call the police. Maybe I won’t bother. There’s a fire hose
back at the pavilion, hooked up to the metropolitan water supply.
What say I turn it on full blast and hose you both down? Like that,
would you?”
Chet frowned, uncertain why it was a threat.
It took him a beat to remember that Flame purportedly burned in
water. On the outside, he assumed; Journey had drunk ice tea with
supper last night. Indeed, Journey looked grim, and though Knife
was still calm, he no longer seemed casual.
“What threat do you think we pose to the
extent that you threaten us with deadly force?” Knife asked softly.
Still feeling her out, trying to make her react? He had a sparkle
in his eye as if he were enjoying himself.
Clementina reached into her dainty purse and
withdrew a small, snub-nosed pistol with a mother-of-pearl inlaid
handle, then pointed it at the Flame. “Get off my property.
Now.”
Chapter 3
Resurrection
The graduate students drew back, and even
Tibbets took a step away from his colleague. Chet, too, shuffled
backwards, trying to get out of the line of fire without being too
obvious about it. He honestly didn’t know whether Clementina would
shoot the Flame. She was smiling, but that didn’t mean
anything.
To Chet’s surprise, neither Flame moved.
Knife slowly extracted a brown cigarette from his jacket pocket. It
was odd, because Chet hadn’t seen him smoke before. Knife lit it
with a bronze lighter, then took a long, theatrical drag. “I
wouldn’t advise that,” he said in a tone so low it was almost a
whisper. Yet it carried. It locked the attention.
“Who would stop me? This is Wetshul, doedicu.
No one cares whether Flame live or die here.”
“Shoot us, and I pass on the favor. Surely
you must realize that killing a Flame does not eliminate us
entirely. Give me twenty or so years to reincarnate and grow up,
and I’ll come after you. And your kin. I know your family even now,
Golub. I know your family like I know the back of my hand.”
“It’s true, you know. I’ve seen him do it,”
Journey put