He sat back, and for the first time she saw his eyes flash with real astonishment. It looked very strange on him, as if he had never been surprised at anything.
“Do you mean to say that you were inside of a woman? And came out of her?”
“Yes.”
“Like a parasite—like a Zilh worm or chest borer?”
“No, it’s normal, it’s—weren’t you …?”
“That’s revolting!” he said, and laughed. “Absolutely revolting. Did you eat her corpse after you came out?”
“Well, it didn’t kill her.”
“How big were you?”
She shaped her hands to indicate the size of a newborn.
“Well, I have to say, this is already one of the most interesting—and disturbing—conversations I’ve ever had.”
“Then you people aren’t born?”
“Of course we are. Properly, from the Marrow Sump.”
“So when you use the word ‘procreate’—”
“It simply means sex. Copulation. It has no other sense, that I know of.”
Annaïg suddenly felt the world rearranging itself around her. She had been assuming that all the talk about coming from the sump and returning to it was a metaphor, a way of talking about life and death.
But Toel wasn’t kidding, she was sure of that.
“Please, go on. Tell me more such disgusting things.”
And so they talked on. After his initial outburst, however, he did not interrupt her much; he listened, with only the occasional question, usually concerning terms he didn’t know. She talked mostly about her life in Black Marsh, about history, about the secession of Black Marsh from the Empire and the subsequent collapse of the Empire. She did not say anything about the revival of the Empire, about the Emperor or Attrebus—but it was a challenge, because the way he listened, the way he hung on her every word, made her want to keep talking, to not let it stop, to keep that attention on her forever.
When she finally forced herself to stop, he steepled his fingers under his lip. Then he nodded out at his world.
“You speak of vast forests and deserts, of countries whose size almost surpasses my imagination. I have never walked such lands—I never will. This, Umbriel, is the only world I can ever know. This, Umbriel, is your home now, and the only place you will ever know again. The sooner you understand that, the better. Waste no time on what you have lost, for you will never have it again.”
“But my world is all around you,” she said. “I could take you there, show it to you …”
He shook his head. “It is not so simple. The outside of Umbriel, in a sense, is in your world. But here, where you find yourself now—surely you observed the larvae, saw how they lose corporeal form when they move fully into your plane. The same would be true of me, were I to leave. My body would dissolve, and Umbriel would reclaim the stuff of my soul. There is no leaving for me. Or you.”
“But I am not from Umbriel,” she said. “I am not a part of it.”
“Not yet,” Toel said. “But in time you will be as much a part of Umbriel as I am.”
THREE
The man who had named himself Captain Evernal stepped from behind the tent. He was fortyish, with tanned skin, blond hair, and an impressive mustache.
Attrebus could see twenty men, but he suspected there were more.
“What’s this?” Sul asked.
Evernal shrugged. “That depends on your business here.”
“We have no business here,” Sul replied.
“You’re a mile off the main road.”
“Is that a crime?”
“It isn’t,” Evernal said. “But it suggests you were coming to this camp, since there isn’t anything else in this direction.”
“Happenstance. We were sightseeing. Hoping to run across a flock of greems. The lad here has never seen one.”
“Well, then,” the captain said. “You won’t mind us searching your packs.”
Sul gestured at their mounts. Four of the regulators strode over. It didn’t take them long to find the moon-sugar.
“Well, this is interesting,” the captain said.
Attrebus saw Sul’s shoulders relax, slightly.
Oh, Divines, he’s going to try it, Attrebus thought.
“Why is it interesting?” Attrebus blurted. “I paid a fair price for that.”
“Then surely you were warned about the penalties of trafficking with the wild cats.”
“There’s no trafficking here,” Attrebus said. “I’ve not offered to sell anything.”
Evernal rolled his eyes. “Oh, come now.”
Attrebus drew himself straighter. “No, you come now, Captain Evernal. Do you have a charge to make? Based on what evidence?”
“Evidence? I don’t need evidence,” Evernal said. “I know very well that you bought that sugar for these cats. Look around you—there’s no court involved. No witnesses.”
“I see. Then you’re bandits, plain and simple.”
“We’re regulators. We uphold the law.”
Attrebus snorted. “Do you even know what a contradiction is? You just as much as said you could murder us with impunity, and you specifically bragged there are no courts involved. You’re a common brigand, sir.”