Treaty

The Stretch was divided into a series of five-story blocks. They formed a concrete forest that curved slightly as it followed the Fifth Ring. Rings were the names applied to the city-state's circular walls, the first having been constructed over a thousand years earlier, each marking a major expansion of the city-state's reach. On the Fifth Ring's other side stood the mines' central offices. Beyond that was an elongated stretch of wasteland, almost twenty kilometers wide, extending out to where the mines began. Far beyond the most distant wall rose the Sixth Ring, the wall that now formed the city-state's furthest boundary.

Kirra knew the royals and their Council were now planning a Seventh Ring. The clan was tapped into the mining offices' newsfeeds, and often received information before it became public knowledge. Elder Barret had used a recent clan gathering to explain how the new development would not impact the Stretch at all. Instead, the Seventh Ring would merely expand Florian's opposite side. Florian's population now totaled nearly seventeen million citizens, and the city-state was bursting at the seams. New Seventh Ward developments would center around hydroponics and high-tech manufacturing and mineral refineries. All the new residences would be upscale, pristine, and connected to the First Ring via a luxurious high-speed transit system. Seventh Ward was to become an expansion of the city-state's wealth and power. The poorer wards in between would simply be shadowy blurs as the privileged few swept back and forth in safety.

The Stretch's residential buildings were more or less identical. Three blocks of grey concrete rimmed an interior courtyard where nothing grew. The clan maintained their own space as a graveled park and children's playground. Kids from other blocks could visit so long as they behaved. Older clan members were assigned park duty, dawn to dusk. Entry after dark was forbidden. The clan's night patrols made certain of that.

Once Kirra was seated again, Elder Barret told her, "Your mother was like my own daughter."

Kirra nodded. She had heard pretty much those same words all her life.

"I can't let you sell yourself, no matter how nice Madame Silver dresses it up."

"Because it's you, Elder, I'll answer this one time. This is no longer your decision to make. I am leaving. Try and cage me, I'll—"

"Don't say it."

Kirra might have swallowed the words. But she showed Elder Barret the grim determination and bleak rage she had spent years hiding away.

"The dangers are out there, waiting. You're a smart lass. You know what I'm saying is the raw truth."

"I can't stay. I won't."

"All right. I see you mean it." Elder Barret levered herself up in stages. "Put Silver's screen-meet off a day. Let me see what I can arrange."

The unexpected gift of hope was genuinely painful. "What good can come from waiting?"

"Maybe nothing." Elder Barret started away. "Mind what I say. Three days."

As always, the diddybirds waited until Elder Barret was well removed from the park bench. When Kirra was alone and evening shadows almost blanketed the empty playground, three of the flying beasts fluttered down to join her.

These were the only alien creatures who dared enter the human zones. They were shy, skittish animals. Which was good in a way, because they appeared very dangerous. Scary.

They were not really birds at all. They most resembled some form of flying reptile, except for their beaks, which were long and ended in a sharp point. This same protuberance extended in a bony ridge between their eyes, and formed a second spear-like blade at the back of their heads. Their bodies were two of Kirra's hands in length, yellow with orange streaks. These same stripes extended over their wings, which were broad and leathery and the color of rust. Their rear legs were cocked for springing, their forearms long for such small bodies. All four limbs ended in claws with sharp yellow talons. The locals called them rats with wings.

Kirra thought they were beautiful. Even as a young child, the diddybirds had used moments of solitude like this to come close. She had never known them to do so with anyone else, never heard of such a thing. Her clan had of course noticed such times, and made jokes of how the winged rats were drawn to her beauty like all those men walking dark ways.