Chapter 15
DHOMHES
He had slept for four hours, answered eleven messages, and read the same sentence about Vessik three times.
None of those things had removed the memory of Sereya's mouth against his. Good, she'd said, and kissed him before he could think of anything else to worry about.
He touched his lower lip once, then dropped his hand when his lead looked up.
Remembering should not have put heat under his skin.
Apparently his body had no use for that distinction.
Across the desk, his operations lead waited.
“Go on,” Dhomhes said.
“I had finished, sir.”
“Then allow me a moment to admire the work.”
The male's expression didn't change. Years of service had made him difficult to impress and much too observant.
Dhomhes brought the clerk's employment record forward.
Twelve years in protocol. Most of them spent arranging approvals, assigning appointments, and forwarding requests to whichever office actually had the authority to answer them. Nothing in his post gave Vessik a right to the volunteers' secure room assignments.
Nothing about it made a personal handover at the third window necessary.
But he had a cousin in the emergency response office.
Dhomhes put the second record beside the first.
“Does the cousin have access to the search assignments?”
“The office does. Individual permissions are being checked.”
“Any contact between them about the inspection unit?”
“Nothing confirmed.”
“Then keep the relationship separate from the accusation.”
His lead nodded.
“What about the reply address?”
“It uses the same commercial relay network as some of her recent calls. Kerde traffic in the records. We can't read the contents.”
“Frequency?”
“Up since the reception. Again after the packet was collected.”
Dhomhes leaned back.
The extra calls might be complaints about the packet being held. They might be instructions. The reply address gave the investigators somewhere to start tracing them.
“Has she tried to contact Sereya again?”
“Not through the residence desk. We wouldn't see a private message unless Sereya reported it.”
“Good. Keep it that way.”
He had Sereya's copy of the message from the night before. He didn't need to turn the comm the residence had lent her into another person looking over her shoulder.
“Let the housing staff know she may ask for someone to accompany her if Roemary approaches,” he said. “No details beyond that.”
“The packet stays here?”
“In evidence storage. The office can explain its procedure using a copy.”
His lead gathered the records.
Then Dhomhes's comm sounded with a request from the residence staff.
Roemary wanted to speak to him about an urgent concern for her safety. Privately.
He read it once, then checked the clock.
Sereya would be coming to breakfast shortly.
Of course.
He sent her a message before answering the staff.
I need to deal with a request from Roemary. It may delay me.
Please start without me if you're hungry; I will come as soon as I'm finished.
Then he arranged to meet Roemary in the small receiving room beside the residence office.
The room had upright chairs, a desk, and an open view of the occupied corridor. If she had a genuine concern, he would hear it. If she wanted something else, she could ask for it in daylight.
She arrived wrapped in pale fabric that made her silver hair look almost luminous.
Dhomhes stood to greet her. She took his offered courtesy as an invitation to remain close, her hands clasped loosely at her waist.
“Thank you. I knew you would understand.”
“What has happened?”
Her eyes moved past him, taking in the room.
“Could we go somewhere a little more comfortable?”
“Please sit.”
He indicated the chair opposite his.
After a fraction of a pause, she did.
“I hardly know where to begin,” she said.
“With what concerns you.”
A small, brave smile.
“Everything, if I'm honest. The ship. What happened to the others at Terra North. Then all these guards, and no one seems able to say how long we're expected to live like this.”
Those were reasonable fears. Other volunteers had them. He let her finish without showing her how closely he was watching the choice of each word.
“My father is frantic,” she continued. “I try to reassure him, but what can I tell him? Even the simplest request has become impossible.”
“Which request?”
“The papers collected from my room. I only wanted to help.”
“Help with what?”
“Arrangements. My father's office has experience assisting travelers. I thought we could make things easier for everyone.”
“By obtaining their room assignments and the times of their movements?”
She stared at him.
Only for a moment. Then she gave a soft, embarrassed laugh.
“That sounds dreadful when you say it like that. Surely someone would need to know where to send things.”
“The residence receives deliveries through its staff. Private correspondents don't need a secure entrance or advance notice of a move.”
“Then remove that part. I didn't write the form.”
“Who supplied it?”
“I was given a great many papers before we left. I can't be expected to remember every one.”
“Vessik may be able to explain the procedure.”
Her fingers tightened on the edge of her wrap.
“I'm sure he can. He's been most helpful.”
Dhomhes let a short silence follow that.
She filled it.
“Has Sereya been saying something?”
“The delivery was collected under the general screening order.”
“That wasn't what I asked.”
“No.”
Roemary looked at him a little more carefully.
He kept his posture easy. She had asked for a meeting about her safety. He had no intention of supplying the names of anyone else who had done the same.
“She can become confused when she's frightened,” Roemary said. “I've had to help her through a great deal.”
“Then you'll appreciate that her private conversations should remain private.”
The smile returned, thinner now.
“Of course. I wasn't asking you to betray a confidence.”
“Was there a specific threat you wanted to report?”
She lowered her eyes. When she looked up again, their brightness might have been tears.
“I haven't been sleeping.”
“The medical staff can help with that.”
“It isn't a medicine I need.”
He waited.
She leaned forward, her voice dropping.
“You always seem to know what to do. Everyone rushes about, making promises, but you actually listen. I thought perhaps we could talk somewhere without a desk between us.”
She rose before he answered and came around the corner of it.
Dhomhes stood.
Her hand settled on his forearm.
He stepped back, taking his arm out from under her fingers.
“Don't.”
Roemary went still.
The word hadn't been loud. It had been enough.
“I only meant—”
“I am in Courtship with Sereya. I don't want a private relationship with you. I have tried to make that clear.”
Color came into her face. “You think very highly of yourself.”
“On several subjects. This needn't be one of them.”
Her mouth tightened. For the first time since entering the room, she appeared to have forgotten the listening corridor.
Then she smoothed the wrap against her arm.
“I was frightened. I reached for someone I thought might be kind.”
“If you feel unsafe, we'll address the reason. You can speak to the security commander, the residence staff, or me. That doesn't require you to touch me.”
For a moment neither of them moved.
Beyond the door, a clerk passed with a stack of meal requests. Ordinary work continued in a building full of people who were waiting to learn whether their lives would ever be ordinary again.
Roemary glanced toward the corridor and sat down.
Dhomhes returned to his chair.
“I see,” she said.
He doubted that she liked what she saw.
“I hope you're equally clear with Sereya.”
His expression cooled.
“She may not understand that attention can be temporary,” Roemary continued. “She has very little experience with males in your position.”
“I won't discuss her with you.”
“I'm trying to spare her an embarrassment.”
“Then leave her out of this conversation.”
Roemary's fingers dug into the fabric at her knee.
There. The anger he had heard only at the edges until now.
She had asked him for private access, then for information about protected guests.
Each refusal brought her back to Sereya.
She had lost more than an admirer she had presumed was hers; the female who used to run her errands now had someone willing to question them.
He wondered how much of that anger Sereya had been required to soothe.
The thought made his voice less pleasant.
“I'll have the medical staff offer help with your sleep. The office will answer about the packet. Is there a specific threat you need to report?”
“No.”
She gave the answer too quickly, then corrected her tone.
“No. Thank you. You've made everything very clear.”
She stood, gathering herself with practiced care.
At the doorway she paused.
“My father will want to know why ordinary correspondence is being held.”
“The office can provide the reason in writing.”
“And who made the decision.”
“Dhomhes,” he said. “He may use my name.”
She held his gaze, then left.
He watched until she turned into the main corridor. She smiled at the clerk she passed. Nothing in her face suggested the effort it had taken to put the smile there.
His operations lead appeared at the far end of the passage.
Dhomhes went to meet him.
“Have the commander follow up on who supplied that form. She says she didn't write it. Vessik has apparently been helpful.”
“I'll pass that on.”
“And make sure the staff take any further approach to Sereya seriously. She may be the person Roemary chooses to punish for this conversation.”
“Does Sereya know?”
“I'm going to tell her.”
Sereya had chosen a table near the dining-room windows, away from the busiest aisle.
There was food in front of her. There was also a covered plate at the place opposite.
Dhomhes stopped beside the chair.
“You started without me.”
“You told me to.”
“How refreshing to be obeyed.”
“Don't become accustomed to it.”
He sat, smiling despite the meeting he had just left.