LITMIR.BIZ

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amusing to see the look on your face when you first saw me.” He dropped Daniel’s hand and smoothed the front of his tunic. “What astonished you most? My size?”

      “I’m not accustomed to shaking hands with Opiri I’ve never met,” Daniel said.

      “But I look nothing like most Opiri. Did Isis tell you about me? Or did you guess?”

      “He has met only Ishtar,” Isis said cautiously. “How did you know Bes was Opir, Daniel?”

      “Survival instincts, perhaps,” Bes said in his usual blunt fashion. “Humans have a great capacity for self-preservation.”

      “Your teeth,” Daniel said.

      Bes covered his mouth. “How silly of me.” He glanced slyly at Isis. “Did you know about her?”

      “He claims he did not know until I told him,” Isis said.

      “Well, you do wear the caps so as not to alarm—”

      “I believe he did guess,” Isis said, meeting Daniel’s gaze. “But it does not matter now. We were just taking a tour of the human wards.”

      “I trust you approve of mine?” Bes asked.

      “You’re one of the Elders?” Daniel asked.

      “Isis has told you about the Nine.”

      “Only a little,” Daniel said, his voice clearly indicating that “a little” was not nearly enough.

      “I have just begun to show him the city,” Isis said.

      “Ah,” Bes said, belatedly aware of the tension in the air. “Well, I think when you return you will find that my humans are particularly well known for serving the finest beer in the city.”

      “And that, of course, is what makes Bes so fond of this place,” Isis said. “But not even humans can live on beer alone. Are you hungry, Daniel?”

      Daniel shook his head. “I’d like to see the other wards.”

      “Another time,” Isis said. “Let us return to the Center.”

      “I’ll come along,” Bes offered.

      The three of them took another shuttle back to the administrative ward, where a small crowd had gathered in front of the blood depository. Several humans, both men and women, were walking back and forth in front of the doors, chanting and holding hand-printed signs. No Forced Donation, one of them read. Isis didn’t have to see the others to guess at their sentiments.

      “Forced donations?” Daniel said, his eyes like chips of lapis lazuli. “I thought that didn’t happen here. What are they protesting?”

      “It is not what it seems,” Isis said. She started toward the depository, but four uniformed Lawkeepers had already reached the protesters and had closed in around one female, who began to shout and struggle as a male Darketan caught hold of her.

      Isis ran to meet them, Daniel and Bes at her heels. The woman protester was weeping as her hands were pulled behind her, her sign broken at her feet.

      “Stop,” Isis said. The Lawkeepers in the process of arresting the remaining male and female protesters looked up and hesitated.

      “What have they done deserving of arrest?” she asked.

      “Disturbing the operation of the depository,” one of the Darketans said.

      “Let me speak to them,” Isis said, aware of Daniel right behind her.

      “Wait,” Bes said, his wide mouth fixed in a straight line. “I know them. They will listen to me.” He spoke to the Lawkeepers, who backed away and watched from a respectful distance as he approached the protesters.

      “What is he trying to do?” Daniel asked.

      “Calm them. Encourage them to see reason.”

      Daniel watched intently as Bes spoke to the protesters. The fight seemed to go out of them all at once. Bes gripped one of the men’s arms companionably and smiled at the woman. She smiled back. He spoke to the Lawkeepers again, and they removed the manacles.

      “What did he say to them?” Daniel asked.

      Isis sighed inwardly. This would not be a pleasant conversation, and it must be done in private. “Come to my apartment,” she said, “and I will explain.”

      But he remained where he was, staring toward the doors of the depository with a fixed expression of surprise. An Opir was emerging cautiously, his head swinging back and forth as he took in the small crowd and the presence of the Lawkeepers.

      Glancing at Daniel’s face, Isis knew that something was very wrong. He knew this Opir.

      Knew him and hated him.

      “Come,” Isis said, carefully taking Daniel’s hand.

      He stared at her blankly. His hand trembled, and it almost seemed as if he had gone to some place deep in his mind, rejecting anything that would restore him to the real world. Unease, strange and unwelcome, coiled in Isis’s belly.

      But he moved when she tugged on his hand. He followed her as the crowd dispersed, and she took him to her building and her apartment on the top floor. He paused inside the doorway, his rigid expression finally easing into a very ordinary suspicion. He scanned the main room as if he expected a trap.

      “It is all right, Daniel,” she said gently, afraid to touch him again. “We are alone here.”

      Daniel met her gaze, and the veil dropped from his eyes.

      “Please, sit down,” she said. “I can offer something to drink and a little fruit, if you wish.”

      “No,” Daniel said. He continued to stand by the small table in front of the couch until Isis took her seat, and then he perched on the edge of the couch, a muscle in his jaw jumping faintly.

      “Who was it, Daniel?” she asked. “Who did you see outside the depository?”

      Daniel blinked as if he didn’t understand her question. “Why were those people protesting?” he said, changing the subject without warning.

      “There are always a few citizens who resent the necessary part they play in keeping our city strong.”

      “I didn’t see any violence. Why were the protesters arrested?”

      “It was overzealous on the Lawkeepers’ part,” she said, equally bewildered by their actions. “It was not necessary.”

      “Not if you have free speech in Tanis,” he said. “Do you?”

      “Even your Enclaves do not have completely free speech,” she said, “but we do what we can to encourage it here.”

      “Just not today,” Daniel said. “What will happen to the protesters?”

      “Since Bes defused the situation, they will be sent home with a reminder not to disturb the peace.”

      “And if the same people do it again?”

      “I do not know,” she admitted. “As long as they remain peaceful—”

      “What do you do with humans who won’t give blood?”

      “We encourage them to seek a place that better suits their preferences.”

      “You eject them from the city.”

      “Only if we have no other choice, and even then we provide them with all the resources they require. As we discussed, there are human colonies to take them in.”

      “And packs of rogues to deal with along the way.”

      “Would you have a society without rules?” she asked. “Would you permit citizens to flout the law at will? Unimpeded aggression among the people of Tanis?”

      “Opiri

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