The Ordinary Read Online Free Page A

any place,” Vitter admitted. “But none of our parties have explored this high. We’re just getting access to this part of the country, Tarma.”
    After he answered, everybody else kept quiet, waiting for Tarma to let her anger go. None of the rest had ever worked with her before, Jedda guessed. Jedda was finding this amusing, since she was only here to translate. “I thought you told me she was a queen,” Tarma said, again to Vitter, and judging from the high flare to her nostrils, the light flush to her coppery skin, Jedda guessed that this was what had made her angriest. “I thought you told me Malin is in charge of these people.”
    â€œShe is,” Vitter answered, confused.
    Jedda spoke quietly. “She’s called the Thaan.”
    â€œYes,” Vitter agreed.
    â€œIt doesn’t mean queen,” Jedda continued, “there’s another word for that. Anin merchants explained the facts to me. They say Malin would never be a queen, it’s some kind of point of pride. I don’t know why.”
    â€œThen what’s a Thaan?” Vitter asked, blanching beneath his coffee-colored skin.
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œFine thing to come so far and realize we don’t even know that much about these people.” Tarma was still hissing, not making it clear to whom she was talking, but she was walking back and forth in the room, looking at everyone. “All right. Well, we have a few days. No one from the Ministries has ever seen this city before. We may as well learn everything we can while we’re here.” She was about to lift her stat, to start to give directions.
    Himmer was looking at his stat. “Mine’s not working. It was fine this afternoon.”
    Jedda thumbed the grip of her own stat and waited. For a moment there was the flash of the retinal screen, then nothing. They were all looking at each other. With the stat online, the screen should have come into focus for each of them, an overlay on the visual background that could be brought into and out of focus simply by will. Along with the screen, the stat’s recording, connecting, input, upload, and download options should have become available. Each delegate should have felt the connection to the others. But no one was online. The stat wasn’t even recording. Judging by the expressions of the others, some of them had already known, too, but had kept silent in Tarma’s presence, in order not to appear to know more than she. Jedda had been waiting for this. Her heart was pounding.
    Ordinarily at such a time the stat would kick in, order the body to sedate itself. That underlying touch of the device was absent as well.
    A draft blew through the room. Tarma had opened the window. She was dumbfounded. She stood there looking out, over all that space, without any reaction, as if she had stood at open windows like that all her life. Maybe she had. Maybe the Orminy lived that way.
    She dismissed the delegates a moment later. “Go away, eat and rest,” she said. “We’ll talk in the morning. We’ll see if the stats are working then.” But she kept her back to them all as they were leaving, and no one spoke to her, feeling it too dangerous. Tuk An, the man from Enforcement, remained behind.
    Safely back in the room, Jedda threw the stat on the bed and looked at it. Only a lump of silicon here. The shock of it was still spreading through her. It was really true, as Opit had claimed. There were places here where all the stat functions were blocked. Her mind was racing.
    She went to the window and looked out. Night, the city lights flickering high up the mountainside. The sense of space was becoming intoxicating. She opened both the outer windows, cold wind striking through her clothes, and she quickly pulled the windows closed again. The metal latches worked in a cunning way, drawing the window tight so the seal was complete. She studied the workmanship for a