The Nutcracker Coup Read Online Free PDF

said another. “Caught in the very act.”
    The largest squatted back on his haunches and said, “You will come with us, child. Halemtat decrees it.”

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    Horror shot through Marianne’s body.
    The child cracked one last nut, rattled happily, and said, “I get my quills clipped?”
    “Yes,” said the largest Rejoicer. “You will have your quills clipped.” Roughly, he separated child from nutcracker and began to tow the child away, each of them in that odd three-legged gait necessitated by the grip.
    All Marianne could think to do was call after the child, “I’ll tell Pilli what happened and where to find you!”
    The child glanced over its shoulder, rattled again, and said, “Ask her could I have silver beads like Hortap!”
    Marianne picked up the discarded nutcracker-lest some other child find it and meet the same fate-and ran full speed for Pilli’s house.
    At the corner, two children looked up from their own play and galloped along beside her until she skidded to a halt by Pilli’s bakery. They followed her in, rattling happily to themselves over the race they’d run. Marianne’s first thought was to shoo them off before she told Pilli what had happened, but
    Pilli greeted the two as if they were her own, and Marianne found herself blurting out the news.
    Pilli gave a slow inclination of the head. “Yes,” she said, pronouncing the words carefully so Marianne wouldn’t miss them, “I expected that. Had it not been the nutcracker, it would have been words.” She rattled. “That child is the most outspoken of my brood.”
    “But-” Marianne wanted to say, Aren’t you afraid?, but the question never surfaced.
    Pilli gave a few coins to the other children and said, “Run to Killim’s, my dears, and ask her to make a set of silver beads, if she doesn’t already have one on hand. Then run tell your father what has happened.”
    The children were off in the scurry of excitement.
    Pilli drew down the awning in front of her shop, then paused. “I think you are afraid for my child.”
    “Yes,” said Marianne. Lying had never been her strong suit; maybe Nick was right-maybe diplomacy wasn’t her field.
    “You are kind,” said Pilli. “But don’t be afraid. Even Halemtat wouldn’t dare to order a child hashay.”
    “I don’t understand the term.”
    “Hashay?” Pilli flipped her tail around in front of her and held out a single quill. “Chippet will be clipped here,” she said, drawing a finger across the quill about half-way up its length.
    “Hashay is to clip here.” The finger slid inward, to a spot about a quarter of an inch from her skin. “Don’t worry, Marianne. Even Halemtat wouldn’t dare to hashay a child.”
    I’m supposed to be reassured, thought Marianne. “Good,” she said aloud, “I’m relieved to hear that.” In truth, she hadn’t the slightest idea what Pilli was talking about-and she was considerably less than reassured by the ominous implications of the distinction. She’d never come across the term in any of the ethnologists’ reports.
    She was still holding the Halemtat nutcracker in her hands. Now she considered it carefully.
    Only in its broadest outlines did it resemble the one she’d made for Tatep. This nutcracker was purely
    Rejoicer in style and-she almost dropped it at the sudden realization-peculiarly Tatep’s style of carving.
    Tatep was making them too?
    If she could recognize Tatep’s distinctive style, surely Halemtat could-what then?
    Carefully, she tucked the nutcracker under the awning-let Pilli decide what to do with the object; Marianne couldn’t make the decision for her-and set off at a quick pace for Tatep’s house.
    On the way, she passed yet another child with a Halemtat nutcracker. She paused, found the Page 13

    child’s father and passed the news to him that Halemtat’s guards were clipping Pilli’s child for the
    “offense.” The father thanked her for the information and, with much politeness, took the nutcracker