She shrugged, winced. "You're pulling the strings right now. Tell you this, if I think it's about to blow, I'm not going to ask permission to land, I'm going down. I have no desire to end up splattered across a mountainside."
He clicked his tongue, but said nothing.
She touched the crease, looked at her fingers. Blood. Lots of it. The drip wasn't slowing down any. Looks like I'm still getting the backside of Ginny's Luck
Hand clasped about her arm, she swung the chair around. "Those our pouches back there by your feet?"
"'Why?"
"There's a first aid kit in mine, I'd like to get a bandage on my arm before I bleed to death. Also some antiseptic, that bunch back there didn't impress me as any too clean."
He thought about that a minute. "I see. All right, come back slowly and show one everything you touch."
She grimaced, stood up, swaying a little as reaction hit her. Why, why do I keep running into these damn double-knotters!
He sat brooding as Rohant cleaned the wound for her and sprayed a bandage on it. "Why are you here, the three of you?" he said suddenly.
She looked up. "What?"
"Why did you come here?"
"We didn't. No no, it's the truth. We were thrown here, only thing we want to do is get the hell out. Help us do it and you don't have to worry about us being used."
"Who brought you here?"
"I don't know. How should I know when I don't even know why it happened, all I know is someone snatched me and dumped me here. I never saw him, I don't know who or why." She waggled a hand at Rohant patient and silent beside her, at Kikun cross-legged on the floor. "If you want to know about them, ask them. I never saw them before we woke up in that tree."
Rohant had left off smelling angry, he was amused now, probably by the fluency of her lies. Ahlahlah, the things that come out my mouth. I'm going to have no character left at all when this is over, I won't even know what the truth is. Oh, well, needs must where the Devil drives. Where'd that come from? Something I picked up from Lee? Sounds like the kind of thing phony rustics are wont to spout to each other in bad triddas.
"I see." He says that all the time. I think it means he hasn't a clue what's happening. Talking about clues, what's all this business about one this and one that? I can't figure the rule and there's nothing about it in the imprint. Local variation? Hah! Shadow old girl, you're, cracking up. This is no time for fussing over pronouns.
"When one tells you, change course, put the nose on 52."
"That's almost switching ends, going right back where we come from."
"Not really. We've avoided a place it's dangerous to fly over, a protected area. Kanaweh won't bother with who we are, they don't know us so we'd be ash and bone before they thought to ask questions. Much better to circle round."
"Oh. Northeast it is. I hope you know what you're doing."
"One has survived forty years of this. I know. Turn… now."
The flit whined on through the night, the drives hiccuping and beating, jolting them up and down though the air was smoother as they left the storm behind, the winds fell and the sky cleared.
At the end of the first hour, he called out a new course, sending the flit directly east. At the same time he made her drop it down until it was barely four meters off the ground. The three moons were all set by now and the stars were thin in this region, with few first magnitudes visible, but they gave enough light in the clear sky to make that skimming flight possible without having to turn on the baselights, which she was happy enough to do without, infected by the tense wariness she felt in the man.
Staying this low, with obstacles continually popping up, she had to keep corn herself; she didn't trust the otto:P. It was hard. Her stomach cramped with hunger, she hadn't had anything,to eat for she didn't know how long, her arm was aching like a sore tooth, even her hair felt tired. They'd moved into a heavily developed area so the strain never lessened, she circled past factories with their attendant villages, farms being triple-cropped with barracks full of laborers, villages snuggling against the walls of the Ispisacos (the Bighouses of the Plicik landlords), other villages that were huddles of small houses set up at crossroads and on the banks of the three rivers that the flit crossed and recrossed as it labored eastward, its course like the trail of a snake with indigestion; in addition to the detours forced on her by the topography, the Fanatic was calling out a change of direction every ten minutes or so, working from landmarks and some system he pulled from memory.
Kikun whistled, a short sharp sound.
Startled, Shadith snatched time to look over her shoulder. "What?"
"Get us down fast as you can. Or Boom! we're ash."
"Right." She glanced ahead, frowned at the broad river curving back across their course, the village tucked into the bend. There were lights coming on in the windows of the small houses though the Ispisaco was still dark except for the servant warrens up under the slates. There were tangled brakes down near the water and scattered groves on the banks; a narrow, rutted, dirt road ran along the top of the high solid levee on the left side of the river; it was deserted now, but it looked like it might be heavily traveled during the day. Patches of fog hugged the ground and drifted above the water, complicaring her search for a place to put down where they could stay undercover if they had to. She wiped at the sweat trickling into her eyes. "Ro, you can see better than I, can, pick a spot." The flit lurched, the drivewhine peaked, went silent for a second, then picked up again. "Listen to that! Hurry, man."
"I'm ahead of you, csecse, spotted one already. Turn south, we want to get away from the village, there's a broke down wharf, couple warehouses, some shacks. Right. Straight ahead… go on… on… now! Down."
When the flit was finally grounded, she breathed a quick sigh of relief, collapsed the canopy and lowered the powerfeed to a trickle, not quite daring to shut it off completely because that might be enough to trigger an explosion. She swung round. "Well?"
The Fanatic switched on the flare, twisted its beam to a thread of light that played on Rohant's face. "Hunter, your companion, how accurate are his instincts?"
"Why ask me?"
A dry chuckle. "One has the feeling your answer might be more reliable."
"Got a point there, Kikun runs on his own rules. From what my son tells me, if his life's on, the line, he's pretty damn accurate."
"I see. Over the side, Hunter. Take your creatures with you." He smiled, a weary grimace warm with unexpected charm. "If you decide to vanish, there's not all that much one could do to stop you. But then one would have to break the set. One would have to kill one or more of your companions. One would rather not do that."
When Rohant, his hawk and the cats were overside, he turned to Kikun. "Now you."
Kikun set his hand on the rail, gave him a look like a lepidopterist inspecting a substandard moth, swung over, and went to stand beside the Ciocan.
"Singer, collect your belongings and anything else that's loose, whatever you think might be useful, and pass it out to your friends."
When she'd finished that, he sighed. "Now, child. Come here. We'll go overside together."
"No." Shadith scrubbed a hand across her face; she was so tired her brain was on strike but what she had to say didn't need all that much celebration. "Listen, I'm not playing games. This isn't about getting away from you." He looked skeptical; it was logical enough, he had a gun on her, how could he believe anything she said? Never thought I'd miss Ginny the crud. He might not have a clue about people, but he jumps fast and accurate where his skin's involved.
"I like lice, by which I mean your secret police who as per usual are not so secret-I like them about much as you do, I suspect," she said. "I don't want them on my neck when I've got no chance to run. And we will have them on our necks unless we get rid of this flit. It's a beacon saying here we are come get us. Besides, I want it to be somewhere else when it blows."