第15节

nt of someone presented with a

totally unexpected transformation. From that moment on, the Mute

wordsmith had proceeded gingerly, choosing his words with the utmost

care. Their guarded conversation contained phrases whose meaning

escaped Yama-Shita, but he was not perturbed. Mr Snow, on the other

hand, never recovered his initial composure.

Yes, thought YamaoShita. Let that be a lesson. I am a man who keeps

his word but I am not easily deceived.

Your move, my lump-faced friend . . .

Besides delivering the box, Clearwater had another reason to look

forward to the journey. Having left the Consul-General squirming with

anticipation at the end of a psychic fishing line, she was now hoping

for an opportunity to sink her hooks into the man at the centre of this

affair. Yama-Shita - who, with the snap of a finger, could order their

return to the Plainfolk. But she quickly discovered that the

domain-lord was no easy catch. Throughout the journey she saw

virtually no one, apart from the two house-women who had been appointed

as servant-guardians. The carriage box which had carried her from

Bo-sana to Kari-faran had been sealed while on the road, and the only

thing she had been able to see through the ventilation holes were small

slivers of sky. At night, when the road convoy stopped to rest at inns

- known as post-houses - she emerged from the carriage box to find

herself in a room which offered no view of the outside world.

She had been similarly confined on the wheelboat and, as a result, did

not set eyes on Yama-Shita until the screens were drawn back to reveal

Mr Snow, Rolling-Stone and Mack-Truck, kneeling on coloured straw mats

and dressed up like low-ranking Iron Masters in dark cotton smocks and

trousers. His directions on how she was to behave and what she was to

say had been relayed by his samurai interpreter, a supremely cold fish

whose voice and manner made it perfectly clear he would not have chosen

to speak to her unless ordered to do so. It was almost as if, by

conversing with her, he felt he was exposing himself to some dreadful

airborne infection.

-The samurai's attitude was understandable. The ordered world of the

Iron Masters was based on the concept of superior and inferior beings

whose status was decreed by the circumstances of their birth. It took

the form of a multilayered pyramid with a few fortunate individuals at

the top and a great many less-fortunate bimbos at the bottom. But

while people could descend through the ranks, there was very little

movement in the opposite direction. Rank, function and the attendant

privileges depended on the degree of racial purity and nobility of your

parents. Your career possibilities were defined at birth. Only top

people got the top jobs. If your folks were at the bottom of the heap

then, in most cases, that was where you stayed. Like all aliens,

Clearwater was excluded. She was not only a social outcast, her

liaison with Nakane Toh-Shiba had made her a social leper. She was a

danger to all who came into contact with her.

The few other Iron Masters she came face to face with on the outward

journey were not privy to the secret, but they all reacted in the same

way. Her eyes rarely met theirs and when they did it was by

accident.

But even then, Clearwater could not force an entry into their minds.

There had to be a way in. A half-open door, an unbarred window.

Toh-Shiba's undisguised lust had made it easy to penetrate his

defences; likewise the craft-master who, following the instructions

from his patron, had been eager to please. But YamaShita's entourage

looked upon her with contempt. To them she was a pawn that would be

discarded when her usefulness came to an end. And she sensed that the

Consul-General was viewed as an errant knight who would also be

sacrificed when the time came.

As for Yama-Shita, he was the ice-king himself. Cold, calculating,

implacable. The image that came into her mind when in his presence was

that of a steel-jawed pike drifting imperturbably among the minnows,

maneuvering into position with barely visible movements of fin and

tail, then striking with electrifying speed. YamaShita could not be