Jay ducked through the maze of houses and barricades, trying to plan, but his head was full of the screams still sounding around him and the crying of someone who had believed she was a King.
Lu drew the blanket back over Broken Trail’s trembling body. She plucked at the thick, brown felt as if she were trying to pick it to pieces. Her eyes stared at the ceiling, but whatever she saw there, it wasn’t the polymer dome. The white fabric and struts couldn’t have caused three days of nonstop murmuring and tossing back and forth. Once, Lu had put his ear close enough to her mouth to hear what she was saying, but his translator disk provided him with nothing but a stream of random syllables.
Lu plopped himself into his chair, one hand dangling between his knees, the other automatically laying itself across the communications keypad. He pushed the pad away with a grimace.
Too soon, he told himself. It’s just too soon to try again.
Not one of his transmissions to Jay or Cor had raised an answer since they’d walked out the door together, and a traitorous, ghost thought was starting to believe none of them ever would.
The wind outside was kicking up again. It whistled around the dome like it was calling the rain to come and play. Trail gurgled as if in answer. Lu knew that soon he’d have to check the cloth swaddling her waist again. The thought sent a sudden hard wave of nausea through him and he had to turn away and looked at the wall instead.
This is all wrong. He rubbed his forehead. I’m the hardware man. I keep the base systems up and running. I don’t take care of flipped-over natives or…His gaze strayed to the hatch… organic monstrosities.
Whatever process Trail had woken up down there had not gone back to sleep yet. It was getting increasingly difficult for Lu to force himself to go down the ladders to see what had changed since the last check. He’d dutifully set up a trio of cameras and they were storing images in his data boxes, but protocol and his job dictated that he go down there himself.
Lu wished suddenly that he was Cor. She was the one trained to deal with living systems. She was the one who knew how to make friends and think on her feet. He just knew wires and gears and the laws of inorganic behavior.
I wish you’d come back. He directed the thought through the dome and toward the building storm. I wish you’d come back and get us all out of here and back to someplace that makes sense.
One more day, he promised himself. Just one more day and I’ll give it up. I’ll send out the emergency flare and have somebody come get us…me.
One more day, maybe two, and he’d find the strength to really believe that he was alone in this forsaken place. One more day, maybe two.
12—Aboard the
“She stood up straight before him, and she said ‘I know you.’”
“This is getting to be a habit.”
Her voice hurt him. Everything hurt him; the mattress against his back, the light against his eyelids, his pulse in his wrists.
I’ll die now, there’ll be no more pain. The thought drifted through his numb mind and he was too exhausted to either choke it off or pursue it. It just hung there.
There was a pressure against his neck and he screamed. After a moment, it subsided to the level of all the other pain. Lethargy seized hold of him slowly.
Thank you, he thought as his consciousness slid into darkness.
Eric came awake all at once with his heart in his mouth. When he saw his own cabin surrounding him, he collapsed back on the bed, weak with relief.
Not a dream. We made it out. The thought gave him the courage to try sitting up all the way. It wasn’t too difficult. The blinding pain had subsided to a dull headache, which he could cope with.
Eric stood carefully, finding his balance was a little tricky, but he managed it. He walked to the door without staggering and opened it.
Aria sat in the common room. Slices of real breads and meats lay on plates in front of her, along with a jug of something that steamed. Eric surveyed the feast. It looked like over half his luxury stock. He sank down onto the sofa and she slid a plate of meats toward him. His stomach rumbled. He folded a random selection of meat into a slice of unleavened bread and devoured it, stopping only to swig down some tea.
Aria watched him with her air of wry amusement. “How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Almost well, I think.” He looked toward the closed view wall and all around the common room. “Do you know how Adu managed to find us?”
“Us?” Aria said incredulously. “You were the only one who needed finding. I was along to help pull you free.”
Eric felt himself begin to stare. “I thought…I thought…”
“That because my Lord Teacher had been captured that this despised one must have been also?” She gave a sharp laugh. “Not so, my Teacher. You did a better job at hiding me than at hiding yourself.”
“Did I?” he asked the tabletop. “One more idiot action.”
He waited for an acid reply that did not come.
“What has happened?” she asked.
Eric ran both hands through his hair. “The Rhudolant Vitae are the ones the Words call the Aunorante Sangh. I have met the Aunorante Sangh, Stone in the Wall dena Aria Born of the Black Wall, and I, Teacher Hand kenu Lord Hand on the Seablade dena Enemy of the Aunorante Sangh was promptly captured and stuffed into a box for dissection.”
He waited for her to demand explanations, to invoke the Nameless Powers, or just to swear, but instead she sighed and dropped her hand onto the pouch that held her namestones.
“What I do not understand is why they call us Aunorante Sangh,” she said. “I wish I had the learning of my ancestresses and not just their stones.”
“You knew?” Eric gaped at her.
She rubbed the backs of her hands, tracing her scars with her fingertips. “I guessed, after I heard they claimed the Realm as their home. It wasn’t exactly a long leap in a high wind.” She gave him her twisted grin. “If you’ll permit…” She broke off. “You should, I think, be getting some more rest, Sar Born.”
“I don’t want to rest.” Eric heaved himself to his feet and paced to the comm station. “I want to think. I need to think.” He gripped the back of the chair with both hands and stared at the blank screen in front of him.
“Well, we’ve two days yet before we reach the Realm,” she leaned back. “That should be plenty of…”
Eric whirled around. “Who set us on course for the Realm!”
Aria sat up straighter. “Adu did,” she told him. “At my direction.”
“You idiot N…” He bit the word off. “The Vitae may already be there!”
“They are already there,” she replied calmly. “Adu checked. We will have to be careful how we proceed, I think.”
“Careful!” roared Eric. “They’ll pick us up as soon as we poke our noses into the system! They’ll…” The air caught in his throat and he coughed, sending a shudder through his entire body. He staggered and caught himself on the sofa’s corner. Aria grasped his shoulders. She eased him onto the seat and leaned him forward. When the coughing died, she let go and stepped away. Eric did not miss the hesitation in her eyes, or the fact that she hid her hands behind her back.
“The Realm is the last place in the Quarter Galaxy we want to go,” he croaked, reaching for the tea.
She sank back onto the sofa. “Those are not the words I expected from a Teacher who has just met the Aunorante Sangh in open battle.”