Again Aslan worked until her mind was numb, slept badly and woke with despair and fear a sickness in her belly. It was hard to get up, to get on with living, but she’d done all she could in the time given her. The airship was coming for her shortly after noon and in a few hours she’d be back in the Palace pen, a slave again, with all that meant. She comforted herself with the thought that the sooner she was gone from the Persij-Samineh Farm, the sooner Tra Yarta’s attention would be taken off them.
They threw a feast for her, danced the sea-dances for her, tumbled and juggled and at the end of the little jubilation, a woman with a husky voice filled with the pain and joy of a fully lived life sang a song that the Farmers listened to with a verve that seemed more than it was worth. Sly eyes watched Aslan, half-smiles teased at her, said to her we know we know, it’s a bit of a risk, but who can always live safely?
The woman’s hair was black and long, shiny and sleek as a tar slick. She stood on a wooden dais, flute player on one side, a fiddler on the other and drummer at her feet.
One a two a moon rising high
Dream and Illusion sharing the sky
Three a four a stone and a bone
What does the stone say, my oh my
What does the bone say, by an by
Moonlight’s for love
For dreams never spoken of
Dreams that won’t die
Five six seven
What do you leave in
When you’re singing just a little lie
Sweet lie, silly lie, pass on by
Eight and nine
Look for the sign
Ten eleven
Fall from heaven
All those devils dark and sly
Riding the shoulders of
You and I
High be low and low be high
Twelve a thirteen
What does it mean
Bone come walking shimble shamble
Place your bets and let the wheel spin
All the little angels grin and gambol
Tip a toe tap a toe atop a little pin
Stone say watch it, round they come again
The angels are dancing wild and tame
Tap a toe tip a toe atop a little pin
Hey bone, ho bone want a little game
Bound for heaven? Never try it
That’s a place they let too many in
Fourteen fifteen
What does it mean
All the little angels wild and free
Asquat around a gamble stone
Playing for we
Sixteen seventeen
What’s your fancy?
Nothing chancy
Let the wheel spin
Eighteen nineteen
What does it mean
Moonlight’s for love
For dreams never spoken of
Dreams that won’t die
Twenty a score, not no more
What’s a number for
Start the game again
Aslan joined in the storm of applause, appreciating the skill of the singer as she turned what seemed to be a minor little counting poem into something daring and portentous. The performance was safe in the Ridaar unit and she could study it in more depth later-if she decided she could trust the computers at her work station and if she wanted the responsibility. It wasn’t all that difficult to understand the overall message of the song; even this stranger could hear the call for a continued resistance to Huvved rule, but there were some trigger words and images that drew a response which seemed disproportionate to their content. There was something going on here, something more dangerous than what Gerilli Persij had called talking a good fight. Aslan kept an open, appreciative smile on her face as the woman stepped down and another singer took her place, a man this time.
Alone except for the pilot and his co, Aslan watched the grasslands sliding beneath her, the silvery green-brown grass blowing in the wind that was pushing the ship along and making it shudder now and then. I could like this world, she thought, these people. Well, not the Huvved. Hmm. It’s worth studying… wonder who’d apply and who’d get the grant? Aaron? Could be. He must be nearly finished with the Darra Saseru, seeing that they’re just about finished killing each other off. Or maybe T’Kraaketkx Tk. I wonder what the Hordar would make of him? Hmm. Are they shapephobic? Or is that a Huvved trait? All the slaves brought in with me were from the cousin races, only slight variations from the two types living here. But that was just one shipment. Hmm. If I were the Imperator and reasonably sane, the techs I’d import would be so different from the locals that there’d be no place at all for them to hide. She yawned, settled back in the chair and dropped into a doze.