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Authors: Liz Williams
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acknowledged.
"And now you need further expertise," Yskatarina prompted. "You do not have more than a basic under-standing of it. You cannot develop it further, without the assistance of Nightshade."
"Do not tell her that we ourselves are learning more about haunt-tech and what it can do,"
Elaki had said. "Or that our knowledge has made great strides of late. Pretend to her that we have always possessed such information."
Yskatarina had stared at her aunt. "Is that not true, then?"
"Haunt-tech is inordinately complex. If we knew a hun-dred years ago what we know now, then matters would have been a great deal simpler."
Yskatarina frowned. "How so?"
But Elaki had only smiled a cold smile, and said nothing more.
The Matriarchs face grew yet more sour. "That would seem to be so."
Yskatarina smiled. "You received the demonstration versions? You have had time to see what they can do?"
Far out on the Crater Plain, she could see something moving. Reluctantly, she turned the eyeshade down a notch to let in more light, and raised the binocular setting. Something was passing swiftly amid a cloud of dust.
"What might that be, for instance?" Yskatarina feigned charmed surprise.
"You know very well," the Matriarch muttered.
"Why, it is a ghost herd. Of—what?" Long disjointed legs, scarlet from the knee down, as if dipped in blood…
Yskatarina was briefly covetous. "Some manner of mu-tated women?"
"Those are creatures known as gaezelles."
"From the far past?"
"From the Age of Children."
"They are quite beautiful," Yskatarina murmured.
"And almost entirely useless. As are the other haunts and shades that your technology has recently conjured up out of the planet's nanomemories and thin air. Sylph-beasts roam the slopes of Olympus.
Demotheas have been seen in the woods of Elyssiane. Mars has become alive with spirits of old creations—whimsical nightmares, evo-lutionary dead ends. This has never happened before."
"I used the words 'demonstration model.' You surely were not so naive as to think we would give you some-thing of power, straightaway?"
"Your aunt promised to Jaelp Memnos with the gov-erning of Earth," the Matriarch said. "I see no signs that this help, this power, will be forthcoming, and we need it. There are many elements on Earth that seek to break free of Martian control. What remains of the Northern Hemi-sphere is full of war-madams, carving out independent fiefdoms for themselves. We send excissieres, who are ef-fective, but it is a costly and laborious business. I should like to send a permanent subjugating force."
"And you shall have one," Yskatarina promised. "We'll help you raise the Sown."
"When we last spoke to Elaki, she seemed well ac-quainted with the notion of the Sown. Nightshade must know a great deal about Mars," the Matriarch said. "Much about its earlier genetic forms and fancies, about the nano-tech that coils and changes beneath the crucible of its sur-face—technology that we have lost over the centuries. I should like to see the records of Nightshade. Your people must have been most meticulous."
"We have had a long time to learn," Yskatarina said, watching the Matriarch's face with care as the truth slowly dawned. "A hundred years of feedback, from the haunt-tech that is already here." Fully aware of the Memnos pro-hibitions about physical contact, she put an iron-and-glass hand on the Matriarch's sleeve in seeming reassurance, and watched with satisfaction as the Matriarch snatched the sleeve away. "Do not worry. I am here to help."
"You are here to sell," the Matriarch hissed.
"Yes, and you knew there would be a price. Just like the previous version of haunt-tech."
"It was a witches' bargain." The Matriarch's face was still as stone. Once more, her hand drifted to the phial at her throat.
"But we are witches, your kind and mine, are we not? We hold the keys, here and now, to a world of transformation. With this new technology, updated, you can mine the past. You can
"And now you need further expertise," Yskatarina prompted. "You do not have more than a basic under-standing of it. You cannot develop it further, without the assistance of Nightshade."
"Do not tell her that we ourselves are learning more about haunt-tech and what it can do,"
Elaki had said. "Or that our knowledge has made great strides of late. Pretend to her that we have always possessed such information."
Yskatarina had stared at her aunt. "Is that not true, then?"
"Haunt-tech is inordinately complex. If we knew a hun-dred years ago what we know now, then matters would have been a great deal simpler."
Yskatarina frowned. "How so?"
But Elaki had only smiled a cold smile, and said nothing more.
The Matriarchs face grew yet more sour. "That would seem to be so."
Yskatarina smiled. "You received the demonstration versions? You have had time to see what they can do?"
Far out on the Crater Plain, she could see something moving. Reluctantly, she turned the eyeshade down a notch to let in more light, and raised the binocular setting. Something was passing swiftly amid a cloud of dust.
"What might that be, for instance?" Yskatarina feigned charmed surprise.
"You know very well," the Matriarch muttered.
"Why, it is a ghost herd. Of—what?" Long disjointed legs, scarlet from the knee down, as if dipped in blood…
Yskatarina was briefly covetous. "Some manner of mu-tated women?"
"Those are creatures known as gaezelles."
"From the far past?"
"From the Age of Children."
"They are quite beautiful," Yskatarina murmured.
"And almost entirely useless. As are the other haunts and shades that your technology has recently conjured up out of the planet's nanomemories and thin air. Sylph-beasts roam the slopes of Olympus.
Demotheas have been seen in the woods of Elyssiane. Mars has become alive with spirits of old creations—whimsical nightmares, evo-lutionary dead ends. This has never happened before."
"I used the words 'demonstration model.' You surely were not so naive as to think we would give you some-thing of power, straightaway?"
"Your aunt promised to Jaelp Memnos with the gov-erning of Earth," the Matriarch said. "I see no signs that this help, this power, will be forthcoming, and we need it. There are many elements on Earth that seek to break free of Martian control. What remains of the Northern Hemi-sphere is full of war-madams, carving out independent fiefdoms for themselves. We send excissieres, who are ef-fective, but it is a costly and laborious business. I should like to send a permanent subjugating force."
"And you shall have one," Yskatarina promised. "We'll help you raise the Sown."
"When we last spoke to Elaki, she seemed well ac-quainted with the notion of the Sown. Nightshade must know a great deal about Mars," the Matriarch said. "Much about its earlier genetic forms and fancies, about the nano-tech that coils and changes beneath the crucible of its sur-face—technology that we have lost over the centuries. I should like to see the records of Nightshade. Your people must have been most meticulous."
"We have had a long time to learn," Yskatarina said, watching the Matriarch's face with care as the truth slowly dawned. "A hundred years of feedback, from the haunt-tech that is already here." Fully aware of the Memnos pro-hibitions about physical contact, she put an iron-and-glass hand on the Matriarch's sleeve in seeming reassurance, and watched with satisfaction as the Matriarch snatched the sleeve away. "Do not worry. I am here to help."
"You are here to sell," the Matriarch hissed.
"Yes, and you knew there would be a price. Just like the previous version of haunt-tech."
"It was a witches' bargain." The Matriarch's face was still as stone. Once more, her hand drifted to the phial at her throat.
"But we are witches, your kind and mine, are we not? We hold the keys, here and now, to a world of transformation. With this new technology, updated, you can mine the past. You can
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