Thann felt Isaho stiffen, but again the child minded her manners and made no protest. This hardening in xe’s daughter troubled xe deeply; xe felt that Isaho was slipping away from the Company of the Blessed, that her soul would blow endlessly across the earth and never again know peace. Maybe in Linojin, xe thought, maybe they’ll know what to do, how to call her back.
Mikil opened the door, then stepped aside. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I wish… if things were different…”
+I know, Cousin. I leave only blessing behind me. May you and yours fare well.+
Mikil laughed then, a harsh unhappy sound that broke off as a wavery whistle came from the other room. As soon as Thann and Isaho were through the door, she pulled it shut. Thann could hear the bar dropping, then the quick heavy steps of the fern as she went to tend her anya.
Isaho tugged at Thann’s sleeve.
Thann slapped sharply at the femlit’s forearm, got her attention. +If you get yourself hurt again, you’ll never make it to Linojin. Let me listen for trouble and behave yourself.+
Isaho blinked, her eyes gleaming liquidly in the moonlight coming through the broken windows of the hallway. Then she nodded. “But we have to get started,” she whispered.:Now.”
+Yes, but stay beside me and keep your eyes and ears sharp.+
Isaho blinked, her eyes gleaming liquidly in the moonlight coming through the broken windows of the hallway. Then she nodded. “But we have to get started,” she whispered. ‘Wow.”
The cratered, rubble-filled street was a pattern of gray and black, the light from nearly full Phosis making strange angles out of shadow so that everything looked different. There was a strong warm wind blowing along the street, dead leaves and debris rattling before it, but the guns were silent. Now and then Thann could hear snatches of music from radios close to shattered windows, now and then the sounds of people talking or laughing or screaming at each other or sobbing.
Getting around in the city would be easier in daylight, but the snipers in the hills shot at anything that moved and the big guns hammered and hammered at the dying city. Night meant slow going and the scavenger gangs that roamed the streets breaking into places, destroying what they couldn’t use, but thinta would warn xe when they were about, so they were easy to avoid. Xe didn’t understand how they could do that, but it was of a piece with everything else; xe couldn’t understand why Pixa and Impix killed each other over a different reading of God’s Law.
Xe’s hand on Isaho’s shoulder, Thann crept along the street, thinta roving in an arc ahead of them. Xe wanted to know when anyone was coming at them, so they could hide till the danger passed. The chances were small indeed that such a person might be Sisters of the Godbond or Brothers on the way to the bedside of someone sick or dying.
Street crossing. That meant moving into the open, away from the sheltering walls. Thann stood a moment, turning slowly, straining to feel danger.
Nothing.
They ran across the street and into shadow again, corn-forting, blanketing shadow.
The moon slid through shreds of cloud, its light waxing and waning unpredictably, hiding and baring them in that random dance, giving them no warning of potholes and the concrete chunks that caught at the toes of their boots with what seemed to Thann like malice as if the inanimates of Impixol were striking blindly back at those who’d maimed them. Xe shivered and pushed the thought away, but each time xe staggered or caught the toe of xe’s boot, the fancy came sidling back into her mind.
One street crossed… three… nine… fifteen…
Xe’s legs trembled with weariness and a cold sweat dripped down xe’s face, burned into xe’s eyes. Xe wanted to stop, but there was no safe place xe could see, and besides, Isaho wouldn’t stop until she fell, and arguing with her would make too much noise.
Xe grabbed Isaho’s arm, used all xe’s weight to shove the femlit over a crumbled wall, then tumbled over after her. Before Isaho could speak, xe clamped a hand over her mouth, frantic because xe’s lack of speech might bring death on them all since xe couldn’t use xe’s hands to explain until xe was sure Isaho would stay quiet.
Xe felt stiffness, then a relaxing. Isaho nodded, her head moving against Thann’s hand.
Xe took the hand away, signed, +Someone coming at us.+
Isaho nodded again, signed: +How many?+
+One band seven.+ Thann flicked a finger straight down the street. +One band six.+ This time xe pointed to the north and brought xe’s hand quickly toward them. +Side street.+
+Will they meet?+
+If our luck has left us. All we can do is stay quiet and wait, Shashi. And pray.+
Isaho’s body went stiff, and she turned her head away. Thann sighed, set xe’s hand on earth coming to life again after its years of sterility beneath pavement. So much anger. Forgive her she hasn’t reconciled herself to pain and loss. So young. Xe broke off that thought before it led to the areas xe didn’t want in xe’s head and sent thinta roaming again, feeling the life fires come closer and closer.
Fear sat in xe’s stomach like an expanding stone, cold, hard, heavy; fear was a below-the-skin shaking in xe’s legs and arms. Xe wanted to be back inside somewhere. Anywhere but here. Xe’d been frightened before, many times, but xe’d never been alone with it, there’d always been xe’s clan or xe’s bondmates to comfort xe. Now there was only Isaho, and Isaho was a child; it was up to xe, to keep her safe, to stand between her and danger, and xe knew in xe’s bones xe was no more a barrier than wet paper.
The stone in xe’s belly grew and grew as they waited, until xe felt glued to the ground by the heft of it. Sudden chatter of shots.
Screams, shouts, curses, clattering noises.
Silence.
The air around Thann felt as if it were stretching, pulled out and out and out into an unbearable tension.
A shot. Another. A whine as pellet ricocheted over their heads and thunked into the broken wall behind them.
The noises grew louder, came faster, surged toward them then away…
The encounter went on for another hour, then both sides broke off for reasons as invisible to Thann as those that brought on the, attack.
Thann waited as long as xe could keep Isaho quiet, sweeping xe’s thinta across and across the area around them just to be sure the streets were clear. When xe could feel the child’s restlessness about to explode, xe got stiffly to xe’s feet and signed to Isaho to walk beside xe.
The wait had been no rest; xe’s body screamed with fatigue, but xe crept on as xe had before, shuddering as xe nearly stepped on a body sprawled on the street. There were half a dozen dead scavengers scattered about, the bodies moving in and out of visibility as if they were actors on a spotlit stage. Isaho was silent beside xe, not looking at the dead, content for the moment with simply moving west.
Gradually the ruins grew wider apart and the rubble heaps smaller. Mill owners and merchants had lived here once, building large compounds with walled gardens. They were among the first to fall to the Mountain Guns, easy targets and tempting since the Pixa hated everything about Impix commerce. Thann could remember the first days of xe’s tribond when xe and Bazekiyl and Mandall used to ride the jittrain out here and walk along the streets enjoying the damp earth smells, the sounds of water from the hidden gardens, exclaiming over the mosaic murals that decorated the outsides of the walls. Once the bombardment started, though, the jittrains stopped running. The story of the destruction came through the news reports on the radio, but no matter how deft the reporter, it hadn’t been real until now, until xe felt it with xe’s fingertips, saw the ruin of xe’s memories in the dim light from the setting moon.
Xe caught hold of Isaho’s arm, pulled her to a stop beside a wall more intact than most while xe’s thinta scanned the area for life.
Nothing larger than small rodents scurrying about in their hunt for food.
+Shashi.+
Isaho wouldn’t look at xe, just kept tugging at the hold on her arm as if she meant to walk forever without stopping until she reached Linojin.