Ruins (Pathfinder 2)

She half expected him to give her the same little flick of violence that Loaf had been subjected to. But he only winked at her. “You can’t hurt my feelings,” he said. “I don’t have any.”

But to Param it seemed that his violence against Loaf could only be explained by hurt feelings. Vadesh lashed out when Loaf taunted him for getting all the humans in his wallfold killed. Whatever Vadesh might be, he didn’t like being accused of . . . genocide? Or failure? Whatever it was that provoked him, it was clear that he could be provoked, and by words alone. He was dangerous, and they all knew it now.

We fear him. Maybe that’s the new tool he created to manipulate us, when we could no longer be deceived. So maybe he wasn’t provoked after all. Maybe he merely switched from spoon to fork, whatever utensil was appropriate for the dish he’d been served.

Just like Mother, just like most of the powerful people she had known all her life. And if there was one thing Param had learned, it was this: She couldn’t win a game against an opponent who could change the rules whenever things didn’t go his way. All Param had ever been able to do was stop playing.

So she disappeared.

CHAPTER 5

Decisions

To Rigg, Param was not invisible—he still knew exactly where she was, because her path was new and clear. That was how he had first discovered her, back in the house where their mother lived as a royal captive. Now, though, he made a point of not looking at her path, at the place where he knew she was, because he didn’t want Vadesh to have the option of moving his metal-threaded body into the same space she was flashing in and out of. Rigg wasn’t sure how much metal the body of an expendable contained, but it didn’t take much to do serious harm to Param.

“I know where she is,” said Vadesh to Rigg. “I have a perfect sense of time, and I know exactly how far she could have gone by now, even running.”

Rigg looked at Loaf, Olivenko, and Umbo. “Param made her own decision, it seems.”

“She’s going to get thirsty,” said Umbo.

“I don’t like splitting up,” said Loaf. “We can’t help each other then.”

“One thing is certain,” said Rigg. “We need to organize ourselves differently.”

He sensed Umbo growing stiff, resistant. Resentful.

“I agree with you completely, Umbo,” said Rigg.

“I didn’t say anything!” Umbo protested.

“When we started out, I was the one with the money. The jewels.”

“Still got ’em,” said Loaf.

“Do you want them?” asked Rigg. “You’ve had them before. I’ll give them back to you.”

“No!” said Vadesh sharply, before Loaf could answer.

“You’re not in this discussion,” said Rigg. “We can’t make you go away, and we couldn’t stop you from listening even if you left, but we’re not interested in your viewpoint, because as far as we can tell, you’re the enemy.”

“Those wild facemasks are the enemy,” said Vadesh.

“You’re their ally,” said Loaf.

“Please, let’s none of us respond to him, including me,” said Rigg. “I was making a point.”

“Wouldn’t want to interrupt your point-making,” said Umbo.

Rigg ignored Umbo’s dig, for now. “It made sense for me to pretend to be in charge at first because of the subterfuge we were using,” said Rigg. “Pretending I was a rich young heir and you were my attendants.”

“Oh, we were pretending,” murmured Umbo.

“Then I was captured, and Umbo and Loaf—you were on your own and you came to Aressa Sessamo to help me, and I’m grateful. I met Olivenko and brought him into our strange set of problems, and Param is my sister and she was in as much danger as I was. But at the end of it all, what I can’t figure out is why I should be in charge.”

“You’re not,” said Umbo defiantly.

“I’m relieved,” said Rigg. “The trouble is that Loaf and Olivenko defer to me whenever there’s a decision to be made. Which makes sense, because even though they’re the oldest and one of them should definitely be in charge, they don’t have any power over time, and they spend most of their energy sniping at each other anyway.”