The Nutcracker Coup Read Online Free PDF Page B

from the child.
    This one, Marianne saw, was not carved in Tatep’s style or in Chornian’s. This one was the work of an unfamiliar set of teeth.
    Having shooed his child indoors, the Rejoicer squatted back on his haunches. In plain view of the street, he took up the bowl of nuts his child had left uncracked and began to crack them, one by one, with such deliberation that Marianne’s jaw dropped.
    She’d never seen an insolent Rejoicer but she would have bet money she was seeing one now.
    He even managed to make the crack of each nut resound like a gunshot. With the sound still ringing in
    her ears, Marianne quickened her steps toward Tatep’s.
    She found him at home, carving yet another nutcracker. He swallowed, then held out the nutcracker to her and said, “What do you think, Marianne? Do you approve of my portrayal?”
    This one wasn’t Halemtat, but his-for want of a better word-grand vizier, Corten. The grand vizier always looked to her as if he smirked. She knew the expression was due to a slightly malformed tooth but, to a human eye, the result was a smirk. Tatep’s portrayal had the same smirk, only more so.
    Marianne couldn’t help it...she giggled.
    “Aha!” said Tatep, rattling up a rainstorm’s worth of sound. “For once, you’ve shared the joke without the need of explanation!” He gave long grave look at the nutcracker. “The grand vizier has earned his keep this once!”
    Marianne laughed, and Tatep rattled. This time the sound of the quills sobered Marianne. “I think your work will get you clipped, Tatep,” she said, and she told him about Pilli’s child.
    He made no response. Instead, he dropped to his feet and went to the chest in the corner, where he kept any number of carvings and other precious objects. From the chest, he drew out a box.
    Three-legged, he walked back to her. “Shake this! I’ll bet you can guess what’s inside.”
    Curious, she shook the box: it rattled. “A set of beads,” she said.
    “You see? I’m prepared. They rattle like a laugh, don’t they?-a laugh at Halemtat. I asked Killim to make the beads red because that was the color you painted your scalp when you were clipped.”
    “I’m honored....”
    “But?”
    “But I’m afraid for you. For all of you.”
    “Pilli’s child wasn’t afraid.”
    “No. No, Pilli’s child wasn’t afraid. Pilli said even Halemtat wouldn’t dare hashay a child.”
    Marianne took a deep breath and said, “But you’re not a child.” And I don’t know what hashaying does to a Rejoicer, she wanted to add.
    “I’ve swallowed a talpseed,” Tatep said, as if that said it all.
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Ah! I’ll share, then. A talpseed can’t grow unless it has been through the”-he patted himself-”stomach? digestive system? of a Rejoicer. Sometimes they don’t grow even then. To swallow a talpseed means to take a step toward the growth of something important. I swallowed a talpseed called ‘human rights.’“
    There was nothing Marianne could say to that but: “I understand.”
    Slowly, thoughtfully, Marianne made her way back to the embassy. Yes, she understood Tatep-hadn’t she been screaming at Clarence for just the same reason? But she was terrified for Tatep-for them all.

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    Without consciously meaning to, she bypassed the embassy for the little clutch of domes that housed the ethnologists. Esperanza-it was Esperanza she had to see.
    She was in luck. Esperanza was at home writing up one of her reports. She looked up and said,
    “Oh, good. It’s time for a break!”
    “Not a break, I’m afraid. A question that, I think, is right up your alley. Do you know much about the physiology of the Rejoicers?”
    “I’m the expert,” Esperanza said, leaning back in her chair. “As far as there is one in the group.”
    “What happens if you cut a Rejoicer’s spine”-she held up her fingers-”this close to the skin?”
    “Like a cat’s claw, sort of. If you cut the tip, nothing happens. If