Many things involving Aaron went unsaid. Nobody on the planet is stronger than Aaron, except Little Chaka Mubutu. So when we go to the mainland, I carry the cook pot. If a grendel came among us, the last man to use a weapon would be Little Chaka. Someone would have to protect me . ...omeone like Aaron Tragon. Little Chaka doesn't compete.
Little Chaka doesn't know how to fight.
The steam jet howled like a fighter jet. Trish jumped: her back was suddenly plated like an armadillo, and she turned with her eyes bugged. Chaka loved doing that... but Edgar never even twitched. When Chaka had the chance to look up, Edgar was moving a whirlpool of cloud over a map of Avalon.
"We want it where people can't see it," he said. "Or can't see it ain't there. So. But the fringe, here, that'll raise hell around Robor. This arm we'll taper off a little... there... matches what Cassandra's predicting. Now here's how it looks from Surf's Up."
Surf's Up was being torn to pieces. Anything lighter than a blockhouse was already gone, fragments floating in the huge waves, or flying through the air.
"Like it? Here's the view from Cadmann's Folly... Nope, they'll see it isn't there. Okay, watch this." He had the whirlpool, the view from orbit. It bent east a bit, and shrank. Back to Cadmann's Folly-"And that matches the Cassandra prediction, which she based on my data. Aaron's too antsy, Chaka. This is the easy part."
"Damn," Trish said. "You're really good."
Edgar preened. He was, and everyone knew it, but he had something else going here.
Trish likely hadn't found Edgar Sikes impressive. Chaka knew her style, and it was domination. But here and now, Edgar Sikes was no schmuck, no mere decoration for a woman. This was Aaron Tragon's wizard, and a wizard makes a risky servant.
"Hey. Chaka? Do you know about a crab that lives in the tops of horsemanes?"
"Sure."
"I wondered why the grendels didn't eat them all."
"Grendels never did climb the big horsemanes. They knocked down smaller ones and ate them. Anything that lived in the top of a big one of those might survive. These do. Dad's studied them. They breed by getting the attention of the pterodons, who see a wiggle of prey in the top of a horsemane, and dive, and get eggs on their feet."
Edgar's fingers were still molding the shape of a hurricane. "What brought it to mind was my back. When Aaron and I climbed that tree. Raced for it. I was winning. I got just in reach of the top, and something with teeth flashed right at my eyes. I dropped right past Aaron."
He watched the hurricane raging at the hangars. Nodded to himself. He said, "I was a long time healing. Cassandra was still relearning the old medical techniques she lost to Greg's fire. Trish, Chaka, this should do it, and it's set to go. I should be on duty throughout."
"Then we'd better get on the stick," Chaka said. "Here." He'd made Edgar a second cappuccino. Trish set it down for him, and kissed him. Chaka watched that for a bit, then stepped outside.
Chapter 17
EDGAR'S STORM
But the king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!
And Joab came into the house to the king, and said, Thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants, which this day have saved thy life. In that thou lovest thine enemies, and hatest thy friends.
2 Samuel 19:4-6
Hendrick Sills winced as he glared at Cassandra's view of the coming storm. It was a nightmare swirl of reds and blacks, pressure zones and cold fronts, sweeping down from the north. Within a few hours it would be hammering the island, the worst storm in a decade.
The onboard barometer had yet to drop far, but fat raindrops were splashing against the windscreen. The dirigible was anchored down tight, and he was making a final check of all compartments. Make sure that all equipment is secure, triple-check the mooring lines, and then scoot to shelter.
Toshiro Tanaka scrabbled briskly up the chrome ladder connecting the command deck with the cargo hold. He saluted, half-seriously. "We're secure, sir," Toshiro said. Good kid. They were all good kids, really. Pity Zack had landed on them so hard, but it was for their own good.
"All right," Hendrick said. "I'm getting back to camp before that storm hits. You probably don't want to stay aboard-it won't be fun if the wind picks up."
"Aye, aye."
Hendrick left Toshiro there in the control room, and climbed down the ladder to the main level. He paused at the door, trying to remember if there was something, anything that he had left undone. It felt as if there was something. But he couldn't put a name to it.
Oh, well...
He climbed down the gangplank. The great reptilian bulk of Robor loomed above him. Clouds were gathering, but it still didn't look like a nightmare of a storm. You could never tell about these things. Better to trust Cassandra.
He hopped into his skeeter and revved it, spinning up into the darkening sky. He dove at the mountains, whipping through the passes, hitting each beacon in turn. Despite his odd feeling about the storm warning, the air was choppy. He didn't want to have an accident.
There were no guards at the main supply depot. None were needed.
Technically, there were no guard duties anywhere in the camp.
But on the other hand...
Twenty years ago, Cadmann Weyland had taken dogs, and supplies, and a skeeter, and begun his own encampment up on the Bluff. On two other occasions, colonists had emulated him, starting branches up in the eastern mountains without formal permission. All three incidents had followed disagreements, arguments, harsh words at Camelot. The Star Born were certainly upset, and there was precedent for, well, freelance requisitioning.
So in the evenings, it was not uncommon to find Earth-Born busying themselves at special duties around the livestock, the landing pads, the central supply depot...
Tonight Carolyn McAndrews had drawn the short straw.
She counted cartons of Concord grapes shipped in from the eastern drops.
She heard something behind her, and turned. The warehouse was shadowed, and she touched a button on her belt, turning the lights up. "Zack? That you?"
The administrator had been in a couple of hours earlier, for a sour exchange of opinions. Zack had been irritable, stubborn, and unreasonable, wanting tomorrow's ledger results yesterday. "Zack?" she called out. "You know, you're not going to get things faster by bugging me every couple of minutes, you know?"
No reply.
She walked down the narrow corridor. She could swear that she had heard something back there. The camp was relatively quiet, folks settling in for the evening. She could hear rain beginning to patter against the roof, and the wind was picking up. Good weather for putting your feet up in front of a fire, and-
A shadow detached itself from the others along the corridor, a small female shadow, and Carolyn felt sudden, swift joy. "Ruth! What brings you out here?"
Ruth smiled hesitantly. There was something different about the girl. Carolyn had noticed it in the past week. She walked a little differently, combed her hair a little more carefully. Rachael had noticed it too, she was certain, but there had been no conversation about it. Carolyn was pretty sure she knew what the telltale signs meant, and it was hard to repress a grin.
Welcome to the other side, sweetheart. Who was he? Was he nice to you?
"Hello, Ruth. What do you need? The avocados have turned ripe-"
"I'm sorry," Ruth said. Her face had changed. The smile had been a mask. There was sorrow and fear there-and something else. Excitement.
Carolyn had only a moment to think: Ruth?
Then light exploded behind her eyes. Pain, so abrupt it barely had time to register before she fell over onto her side, unconscious.