“That’s not an especially good idea if you want to have a viable society.”
“My adult cousins don’t tend to think that far ahead. Besides, holding onto power is more important and immediate than some illusory thing called society.”
“Yet I think you miss it sometimes.”
“Ah, it’s home. Nothing’s ever home like the place where you were a child.”
“Hm, for you, perhaps. For me, University is home and it has been from the moment I touched ground there.”
The land unreeled beneath them as the flikit covered ground it had taken Shadith days to cross on ponyback. Marrin slowed as Olterau slid toward them, a busy place with ore trains from the mountains creaking along twin tracks, pulled by huge lumbering beasts that looked like animated haystacks. Wains from the cabhisha runs shook and swayed along a road paved with granite setts, loaded with canvas wrapped bales of sheared fleece. Now and then Meloach or Fior children drove small herds of bladlan-two, three, five beasts at most-or flocks of ground walking birds toward the Dumel. The streets in the town itself were filled with sailors off the six barges tied up at wharves on both sides of the river, with men, women and Denchok moving in and out of shops, stopping in taverns, milling in clusters-all of them stopping to stare as the flikit passed by overhead. At the western edge of the Dumel a shift was changing at the fiber mill, workers pouring out into the yard with slips of paper in their hands, the next shift waiting for them to clear off so they could get work-these, too, paused to stare.
As the road turned north, the trees began growing more thickly, turning from scattered groves to forest, with the dark spikes of conifers showing up for the first time. The sky ahead was thickening with cloud and the winds were picking up. Now and then a splatter of rain hit the top and side of the flikit. As the light dimmed before the coming storm, Marrin took the flikit off autopik and flew it as low as he could, holding it just above the treetops so Aslan could scan the road with the all-wave binoculars and pick up any signs of trouble.
Aslan used her eyes as well as the more narrowly focused instrument and kept a tight watch on the road. About half an hour into the forest she spotted the remnants of a caцpa, mostly scattered bones and patches of hair. “Marrin, I’ve got something. One. Two. Mark. Right. Circle back and land at Mark.”
They found the mostly consumed bodies of five caцpas by the side of the road or a little way into the shadow under the trees. They also found three bodies stripped mostly to bone. A touch from Aslan’s medkit told her they were male and Fior at that. Not Shadith. Maybe not the two Ard who rode with her.
Another brief search found signs of a camp, rope ends, charred wood, scattered piles of caцpa dung. And a bloody pad that had blown up and caught in a crotch of one of the smaller trees, protected from the rain by the nest of some bird or other. She tested the blood and relaxed. Fior.
Marrin came back into the small clearing. “Found more caцpa sign back that way. Looks to me like they were attacked, most of the caцpas were killed, one or both of the men were wounded. Either Shadith or one of the men killed the attackers. And that’s probably when the handcom got bust.”
Aslan dropped the bit of cloth. “No doubt.” She shivered. “I don’t like this. Let’s get going.”
When they reached Dumel Minach, the storm had blown the Eolt away. As soon as he saw the place, Marrin turned to Aslan. “Scholar, you want to stop here? If one of them was injured, they probably lay up here for a while. The people down there would know what happened.”
She shook her head. “No. Let’s keep going. If we don’t see sign of them and they haven’t reached Chuta Meredel yet, we can always come back.”
“Not all that much daylight left.”
“If you’re tired, we can trade places.”
“You’ve got the better eye, Scholar. But I don’t feel good about setting down in the dark, not after what we saw.”
“Hm. You’re probably right. Depends on what we find. Let’s move.”
The moon rose shortly after sundown, a gibbous blur behind the clouds, the road narrowed, then disappeared beneath the canopy, and only the bridges over the innumerable creeks kept them on track; it was like the game children played, connecting the dots.
Marrin was flying half-speed now and had the telltales turned on. Animals kept away from the road, so the soft bongs were rare enough for him to send the flikit swooping through the canopy to check them out. They never saw anything, not even one of the mountain ruminants. Aslan kept the binoculars scanning the trees, but it was frustrating. Should Shadith and the two Fior be dead, they could have flown over bodies anywhere and they wouldn’t even know it.
As she searched, Aslan worried. It was the right decision, going ahead. They’d find Shadith if she was still alive and if she was dead, a little delay wouldn’t matter a whole lot. Knowing that didn’t help a whole lot.
“Cutter.” Swearing in Picabralth, Marrin hit the speed slide and sent the flikit curving away from the road in a long sweep.
Aslan pulled the binoculars off her head, smoothed her hair as she scowled at the dark ahead, winced as a line of light cut through the night, the sideflare illuminating what looked to be a tower of some kind; it cut off suddenly and the telltale flared. “Ah! Stunner. Guess who, hm. Take us into the clouds, Marrin. I want to see how many there are out there. With cutters I’d rather not have surprises.”
He nodded and took the flikit higher.
6
I’m getting good at blind firing. Gods curse them for giving me the practice. Shadith eased up to a window slit, jerked quickly back as a cutter beam struck through it. Good eyes, damn him. Behind her the beam melted gouges in the ceiling, brought down spatters of melted stone which were too far back to touch her. She shut her eyes, felt about for him, lifted the stunner and touched the sensor. The beam dancing up and down the slit blinked out and the lifefire dimmed, so she knew she’d got another. Trouble is, there’s too many of them… She held the charge plate near her eyes, swore softly. The stunner was one issued by University to field studies and had a large reservoir, but getting in here had drawn that reservoir down, which meant sooner than she wanted, she’d have to start using the cutters.
She heard the pellet gun from the room on the other side of the tower, the sound coming oddly doubled through the window and the room’s open door. So they were trying to slip by on the cliffs and Maorgan spotted them. For a moment she wished she could split in three. Getting inside here had saved them for the moment, but they were two defenders facing an attacking force of at least twenty. She thought about the price the Chav spy had put on her head and fought down a surge of anger that blanked out the mindtouch for a moment.
She knelt with eyes closed, brow pressed against the cold stone, calming herself, transmuting the anger into resolve. It wasn’t just the spy, he was only a tool, it was the Chave sitting in their enclave across the sea decreeing her death, stealing the last few years left to her. For an instant the thought amused her, after twenty thousand, getting so het up about a hundred or so. Then she sobered. Well, it was the reason she’d begged Aleytys to find her a body. Now that her ending was always before her, the days, even the hours, were jewels beyond price. Brighter and more glowing. Or they were supposed to be. She considered this moment, sighed. “I’m only alive when I’m about to be dead. Gods, what a… Digby, it looks like you’ve got yourself an agent. If I live through this.”
She set the stunner on the floor and lifted one of the cutters she’d taken from the choreks she’d stunned. Danor had begged for one of them, but there were some things she still wouldn’t do; arming a crazy man with an energy weapon was one of them. Not from exactly altruistic motives, but she was going to have to testify under verifier and she didn’t want that sort of thing popping up.