The Braided World Read Online Free PDF Page B

the River Sodesh.
    “Oh Bailey …,” Shim began. The Dassa loved to say her name, but it did get tedious after a while. “You may take a boat, certainly.”
    “Well then, fine. Whereabouts?”
    “Bailey. Any boat. Anyone will be pleased to give you a boat. Just ask.”
    “How will I return it?”
    “Oh Bailey, there are many boats. It doesn't matter where you leave the boat, but tie it to a pier.”
    Now it was Bailey's turn to look blank.
    “They belong to everyone. No one has just one boat. One has all boats.”
    The light dawned on Bailey. “Oh. Well, then.” Waving her good-bye to Shim, she made her way to the pier. A hoda was just tying up a skiff. “If you don't mind,” Bailey said, “I'll take that.” The hoda made a hand sign that Bailey thought was a
Yes ma'am.
Unfortunately, hoda couldn't speak out loud, so Anton had the crew furiously at work learning the hand sign they used. Bailey was a little behind in her studies.
    The hoda vacated the skiff, pulling herself onto the dock with arms grown strong from labor. She held the rope to keep the boat close as Bailey contemplated how to descend into the thing.
    It was not going to be easy with the boat a full meter below the dock level. But it was at times like these that she saw the sense in wearing the military jumpsuit. Bailey sat on the dock, aiming her feet at the skiff Then, with a little hop, shefell into it, tipping wildly to the side and nearly upending in the water.
    Bailey smoothed her hair. Not very dignified. Around her, people in nearby skiffs had stopped all activity to watch this maneuver. They smiled when Bailey settled herself, kneeling, in the boat. Then they set up a patter of oars, slapping the water.
    Applause. She accepted the paddle from the hoda on the quay and set off, determined to make a decent exit.

TWO

    Anton watched from the king's balcony as the barge of the uldia receded. King Vidori had already turned away, to confer with his military chief, Romang, and a dozen nobles.
    “She didn't come out,” Nick said, watching the barge enter one of the canals, barely clearing the width of it. “That might have been lacking in respect to the First Dassa,” he said, referring to one of the king's titles. The uldia and the judipon, the Second and Third Dassa, were the other great Powers of the region—in competition with the king, Nick had said, suggesting at the same time that Anton might play them off against each other. If the king still refused to allow access to the Quadi site.
    “Maybe we should pay a social call on the woman,” Nick said, keeping his voice low, referring to the Second Dassa, the person they called Oleel.
    But Anton's goals at the moment were more narrow. The problem of Zhen, for instance. The problem of the confiscation of their weapons. “Vidori could interpret that as a threat,” he said.
    “Maybe that's a message he needs to get, Captain.”
    Anton knew Nick was itching to break free of the king's compound. They all were. But Vidori was asking for patience, to give the Dassa people time to get used to the idea of visitors. Especially visitors like them.
    The king turned to them, motioning for them to join him inside. As Anton and Nick left the veranda, the servants closed the screens, finely woven, but sturdy. Outside, a light rain had resumed.
    Anton noticed that the table had only two chairs drawn up. “I don't think you're invited, Nick,” Anton said.
    “Aristocrat to aristocrat, then,” Nick said, grinning, making it hard to take offense. Anton remembered Nick saying he'd be here to help him, that day when Bailey named him captain. But from the first day he and his friend had seen things differently. They were all second-guessing him, and no one more than Anton himself, who'd never looked for the job.
    Nick left, along with Romang and the nobles. On a small stand was the king's private telephone, self-consciously placed within reach. It might have been a work of art, with its porcelain housing