“What else?”
She could hear Enris now. When had she believed ignorance was of any use? “Thought Traveler—the Tikitik—told me the Oud don’t understand how fragile we are. That they think we’re the same Om’ray who lived here, long ago.”
Marcus gave another of his nods, remarkably unconcerned. “Could be. Different lifecycles.” At her frown, he clarified, “Every species has its own way of living, of growing. Common problem in the Trade Pact. Confusion always. Rude to one, not to another. It can make for good jokes.”
She’d forgotten. He was accustomed to other races. More than she could imagine existed—or wanted to know about. Cersi’s three were enough.
And there was nothing funny about this misunderstanding. “The Oud was attacked. Three deep cuts, here.” She indicated the slashes against her own side. “It died, Marcus, to come to us.”
“An emmisarymurdered?” She’d seen many expressions on the Human’s face, so like an Om’ray’s. She’d never seen outraged fury before. “The Tikitik?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m here. Your machine watched us leave and I—” She stopped. He was already in motion, tripping over a boot in his rush to one of the consoles.
Once there, his hands flew over the controls of the device. Aryl went to stand by his shoulder, silent as he worked. An image of the valley appeared on the screen, from above. A perspective she usually enjoyed; now all she felt was impatience. Had it seen the attack?
The display soared over the barren nekis, over the hill of debris, swooped lower as it found and followed the road to Sona. And three figures, two staggering.
“I watched this narrowfield. To see you.” A tap of the control and the view expanded to the full width of the valley, as well as before and behind. The pace became quicker. The figures, much smaller, now moved their legs and arms at a ridiculous speed. Rock hunters appeared and rolled in pursuit with ominous—and unreal—haste, using the arched bridges, which she hadn’t realized. Shadows slid past, as if Marcus hurried the sun as well. She swallowed, dizzy.
The Oud would have been ahead of them. This was where she’d picked up its track for the first time.
A bulge of dark at the rock face caught her eye, moving differently from the shadows cast by the sun. “Wait. There!” Aryl pointed and he pressed a control, stopping the image. “Can you look closer?”
It was like falling, the way he took them diving to the ground. She kept her eyes fixed on what she’d seen—or thought she’d seen. Larger, clearer, still confusing.
Marcus grunted. “Good. Watch.” The fall stopped. The bulge of dark was set in motion again, this time slowly.
It was the Oud, on its flat vehicle, emerging from the rock. “There’s no tunnel,” she protested. Impossible she could have missed it—she’d been by that very spot five times now.
“Clever.” Marcus did something to the image and a doubled line appeared. “The opening is hidden from the road. Like this.” He leaned back and put his palms together, sliding them apart to leave a gap between. “The Oud came out behind a wall of rock. From the side, can’t be seen.”
He let the vid play, but the vehicle and its passenger disappeared around the next bend. “Sorry I stopped recording,” the Human commented grimly.
Aryl gestured apology. “It’s not your fault. I should have seen it.” She’d let herself pay more attention to Hoyon’s complaints than to their surroundings, been too confident the only threat was what rolled and tumbled behind. Haxel would never have made that mistake. In the canopy, she wouldn’t have.
Walking on the ground wasn’t only boring; it dulled the senses. She’d be more careful from now on.
“We should—”
The lighting in the room flashed red, then blue, then back to normal.
“What was that?”
“Company.” Marcus tapped once more. The image on the screen was replaced by a view she recognized, behind the stranger encampment, over the tracks made by the Oud.
A pair of their vehicles were approaching.
“Good!” The Human swept their dishes into an empty—she hoped—crate and lowered the table and seats into the floor, as if he expected to entertain the enormous creatures here. An Oud couldn’t possibly fit through his door, but Aryl didn’t bother pointing this out. Marcus babbled at her as he gathered equipment and clothes, an excited flood of his words and hers. “They must have found something. I thought maybe yesterday, when they penetratedthenextstratum, but they didn’t come then. I told Tyler—the other Triad First—when he checkedin. He thinks I’m wasting my time here, wants to send P’tr sit ’Nix to retaskthestation. I told him we should give the Oud a good chance to prove or—”
“Marcus,” Aryl interrupted.
He stopped, one arm in his coat, and gave her an abashed look. “Sorry. I’ve been here too many days, waiting for access to their site—”
Passion, if no common sense. “That may not be why they’re coming,” she said gently. “Remember the dead Oud?”
Offense. “I had nothing to do with that.”
“No, but they could have seen me arrive.” She hadn’t, Aryl thought with disgust, used any stealth in her approach. She’d been more concerned with soup.
Not that she knew how to hide from what lived underground. Haxel, who assumed the worst as a habit, thought the Oud could feel footsteps over their heads, the way an Om’ray heard footsteps or rain on a roof.
“If true…Aryl, you should leave. Now.” Pulling on his coat, Marcus went to the door and threw it open, gesturing wildly. “Hurry!”
“Not a good idea,” Aryl told him, pulling out the pendant.
Through the open door, she could see what the Human hadn’t.
Coming through the nekis grove were five Tikitik.
Chapter 14
MARCUS CLOSED THE DOOR, fingers flying over a panel beside it. “Securityfield. Autodefense,” he explained as he sagged, his back to the wall. “Safe.”
She shouldn’t have told him about the dead Oud. “Safe doesn’t accomplish much. I’ll talk to them.” Aryl held up her pendant again. “I’m Sona’s Speaker, permitted to converse with other races.” By the Agreement.
“Open the door?” She might have asked him to jump back into the waterfall. “No. Follow protocol. Make sure they have peaceful—are peaceful first. Talk over comlink.”
Which might work if just the Human was involved. Aryl didn’t think the Oud or Tikitik would expect manners from the strangers. But they had to know she was here—it was too much of a coincidence. Interesting, that the stranger illusion hadn’t fooled them.
She gestured apology, but took a step toward the door. “Trust me to know my own world. You can wait here. I’ll be safe.”
“Saw that on Oud.” Marcus pointed at the pendant. “Not protect it.”
He had her there.
“You can leave,” she insisted. “These are my neighbors. I have to live with them. Let me outside.”
“Stubborn.”
She shrugged. “Please, Marcus.”
“I’m coming with you.”
With that, he straightened his pretend-Om’ray clothing though, having sensibly abandoned his Yena leg wraps for stranger-trousers, she doubted the result would fool even an eyeless Oud. A couple of devices she didn’t recognize went into the pockets of his Grona-like coat; his stony expression didn’t invite argument. “This is not a good idea,” was all he said as he turned off whatever he’d done to the door and opened it.
It wasn’t as though she had a choice.