Its thats aeroplane food! she said, and felt her face going red because of that smile.
Mordion stripped the transparent top off the tray. Steam rose into the dappled sunlight, and so did a most appetising smell. Not really, he said. Its a stass-tray.
Whats the blue stuff? Ann could not help asking.
Yurov keranip, he answered. His mouth was full of it. He had detached a spoon-thing from the side of the tray and was eating as if it was indeed centuries since he last ate. A sort of root, he added, fetching a bread roll out and using it to help the spoon-thing. This is bread. The pinkish things are collops from Iony in barinda sauce. The green is I forget a kind of seaweed, I think, fried, and the yellow is den beans in cheese. Underneath, there should be a dessert. I hope so, because Im hungry enough to eat the tray if there isnt. I might spare you a taste if you care to come down, though it would be a wrench.
No thanks, Ann said. But since her legs were going really numb, she struggled one knee on to the branch and managed to pull herself up until she was standing, leaning against the tree trunk, with one arm draped comfortably over a higher branch. Like that, she could wriggle her skirt back down and feel almost respectable. The blood still streaked down her shin, but it was brown and shiny by then.
There was a dessert under the hot food. Ann watched, slightly wistfully, as Mordion lifted the top tray out as you do with a box of chocolates. Underneath, it looked like ice cream, as mysteriously cold as the top course was hot. I am in a field of paratypical thingummies, Ann thought. Anything is possible. That ice cream looked luscious. There was a cup of hot drink beside it.
Mordion tossed the spoon into the empty trays and took the cup in both hands. Ah, he said, supping comfortably. Thats better. Now, I want to ask you something else. But, first, whats your name?
Ann, said Ann.
He looked up at her, puzzled again. Really? I thought somehow it would be a longer name than that.
Ann Stavely, if you insist, said Ann. She was certainly not going to tell him that her middle name was, hatefully, Veronica.
Mordion bowed to her over his steaming cup. Mordion Agenos. This is what I want to ask you will you help me to make another attempt to break the Reigners ban?
It depends, Ann said. What are rainers?
Those who rule, said Mordion. His face set into the grimmest of deaths-heads.
Above the steaming cup it looked terrible, particularly surrounded by the bright spring woodland, full of the green of life and the chirping of nesting birds. There are five of them and, though they live light years across the galaxy, they rule every inhabited world, including this one.
What even inside this thingummy field? Ann asked.
Mordion thought. No, he said. No. I am almost sure not. This seems to be one reason why it came into my head to try to break their ban again.
Are the Reigners very terrible? Ann asked, watching his face.
Terrible? Mordion said. She saw hatred and horror working under his grimness. Thats too small a word. But yes. Very terrible.
And whats this ban they put on you?
Exile. And I am not to go against the Reigners in any way. Looking up at her from under his long wings of eyebrow, Mordion had a sinister unearthliness. Ann shivered as he said, You see, Im of Reigner blood too. I could defeat them if I was free. I nearly did, twice, long ago. That was why they put me in stass.
But thats not true! Ann thought. Humour him, or Ill never get out of this tree. So how do you want me to help?
Give me permission to make use of your blood, Mordion said.
What? Ann backed against the trunk of the tree, and pressed further against it when Mordion pointed to the place in the path where she had fallen over. It had not dried up like the blood on her leg. Down there it was bright red and moist. There seemed to be an awful lot of it too, spreading luridly among the green mosses and splashed scarlet on the white stone that had cut her. It looked almost as if something had been killed there.
The field is waiting to work with it, Mordion told her. It was the first thing I noticed after you ran away.
What for? How? Ann said. I dont agree to anything!
Perhaps if I explain. Mordion stood up and strolled over to a spot just under Anns branch. She felt sick, and tried to back even further. She could see the buds on the end of her branch shaking in front of Mordions upturned face. She felt as if she was making the whole tree shake. What was done in the past, Mordion said, was to get round the Reigners ban by breeding a race of men and women who were not under the ban and could go against the Reigners
Im not doing that! Ann almost screamed.
Of course not. Mordion smiled. The smile was brief and sad, but as wonderful as before. Ive learnt my lesson there. It took far too long, and it ended in misery. The Reigners eliminated the first race of people. The second time there were too many to kill, so they killed the best and put me in stass so that I was not there to guide the others. There must be hundreds of their descendants now with Reigner blood, here in this world. You, for instance. Thats what the paratypical field is showing us. He pointed once more to the bright blood in the path.