Alien Chronicles 3 - The Crystal Eye (20 page)

Luax stepped up first and handed her a small sack of chuffie roots, freshly dug that morning. “May your journey go swift and well, Ampris,” she said formally. “May your return be swift.”

Ampris was touched by her kindness. She took the roots with gratitude. “Thank you, Luax.”

Tantha shouldered up beside the Reject female and bared her teeth at Ampris. She reached out and touched the Eye of Clarity hanging around Ampris’s neck. “Come back to us, Golden One.”

“I intend to,” Ampris replied.

Tantha handed her a full water skin. As Ampris slung it over her shoulder by its leather cord, the weight of it felt reassuring. She did not know how much drinkable water she would be able to find on her journey. The Plains of Filea were so arid they were almost desert.

“Thank you, Tantha,” Ampris said. “It is good to leave with the gift of fresh water.”

“You come back to us safe,” Tantha said fiercely.

“I will.”

By then everyone had assembled in a circle around her, Ampris looked at their faces, some containing sorrow, others looking hopeful, and some, like Frenshala’s, appearing indifferent. Clutching her Eye of Clarity, Ampris smiled at each of them, then turned back to her sons.

The cubs looked very grave and alarmed. She realized she should have taken more time to prepare them for what had to seem like an abrupt departure, but she knew they would be all right in Elrabin’s care.

The Kelth stood behind the cubs now, with Velia beside him. He nudged his mate, and Velia scuttled forward with visible reluctance to press a small pouch of leather into Ampris’s hand. Although the top was tightly closed with a drawstring, Ampris smelled the pungent aroma of herbs.

“To refresh you when you are weary,” Velia said. Her tilted golden-brown eyes met Ampris’s briefly, then she darted back to Elrabin’s side.

Ampris thanked her, but it was Elrabin who smiled in return.

“I want to go with you, Mother,” Foloth said. His voice sounded small, with none of its usual assurance.

She shook her head and then pulled him close and gave his forehead a lick of love. “You mind Elrabin and Velia,” she said. “Do as they tell you. Stay out of trouble. Promise me this, Foloth.”

He glowered, and she took his head between her hands, holding his gaze with her own. “Promise me,” she repeated.

“All right,” he said at last. “I promise.”

She released him and reached for Nashmarl. But he ducked out of her grasp, refusing her caress. His green eyes were dark with emotions. “You might not come back.”

“I will,” she promised him, understanding his fears. “I promise I will.”

“Can’t promise something like that,” he whispered.

Elrabin stepped closer to him and gripped his shoulders from behind. “Goldie always keeps her word,” he said.

Ampris smiled at him. “Be well, my old friend.”

He nodded, and she knew her good-byes were over. She turned abruptly and set her face toward Vir, lengthening her stride as the sun lifted above the horizon and spread its morning rays of gold through the trunks of the forest. She did not look back.

CHAPTER
•EIGHT

Eleven days later, Ampris came hobbling over the last dusty rise and saw the walls of Vir towering before her. For the past three days she’d been able to see the city, like a beacon before her, shimmering distantly through the heat waves, giving her hope despite the raw sores on her feet and the grinding pain in her crippled leg. Now she stumbled to a halt, breathing hard and feeling light-headed from heat exhaustion. It was mid-afternoon, she knew by the harsh slant of the sun, a time when she should have been resting under the sorry shade of a bush, but Ampris was too close now to rest. She forced herself to keep going, planting one foot in front of the other without looking up—until now . . . when the city stood across her path in all its immensity.

The walls ran as far as she could see on either side of the wide gates. To her right, a slum of decrepit hovels and lean-tos grew from the base of the wall like an unhealthy fungus. Even at this distance, she could smell the stink of the place. She knew immediately what it was, although she had never seen it except on occasional vidcasts when she was a cub. Reject Town, it was called by some.

Although many Rejects lived in abandoned buildings in the heart of Vir, they were periodically rounded up by patrollers and dumped outside the city gates. It seemed to be the official hope that they would leave the city and go elsewhere, but they never did. Instead, the slum grew in size every year, as more and more Viis hatchlings were rejected as unfit for normal society.

Although it had been many years indeed since Ampris left Vir, the imperial city looked unchanged—at least from out here. She recognized the distinctive tall buildings of the Zehava District, their outlines smudged in the polluted air. As a cub she had often stood at the windows of the palace, gazing at these same tall buildings and wondering what life was like in the rest of the city. Now her memories were a tangle in her mind. She had traveled across the empire and back, had seen amazing sights, yet she’d never expected to return to Vir.

As she stood there in the heat, staring, a skimmer roared past her, whipping up a cloud of dust with its air jets. Coated in the stuff, Ampris coughed and slapped dust from her fur, then forced herself to hobble forward.

Her heart began to beat faster with every step. At long last she was coming home.

For the first few days of her journey she had denied that, telling herself sternly that the city had never been her home, that she was and always had been an outcast. But somewhere on that difficult journey, as her small food supply ran out and she had scant luck in hunting more, she stopped pretending anything to herself. She was coming home, and her growing anticipation had eventually been all that kept her going.

This morning, when she rose to start the last few miles of her long journey, her leg had given under her, and she’d fallen hard, so hard the wind was knocked from her lungs. She lay on the ground a long while, aching and weak with hunger, her mouth withered with thirst. But finally she’d scratched together the remnants of her willpower and forced herself up once again. Slowly, with the city shimmering before her, she’d managed a small, excruciating step, then another, then another. After an hour of this painful progress, the knots in her muscles had loosened, bringing mercy from the worst of the pain, and she’d been able to walk without fear of falling again.

She had one mouthful of water left in her water skin. She could hear it sloshing with every step, tormenting her. But she had sworn to herself that she would not drink it until she stood inside the city walls. Then, she would celebrate.

In the distance, the Cuna Da’r River curled lazily toward the city from the opposite direction of Ampris’s approach. She could smell its marshy, fishy scent despite the dust clogging her nostrils. It made a loop around one side of the city before meandering on. She could not see it from here, but many memories of playtime along its verdant banks kept lifting into her mind like bubbles.

She smiled to herself, hobbling along one step at a time.

Another skimmer zoomed past her, its Viis occupants only a blur. Then a transport rumbled by, coating her with dust again. Ahead, traffic jammed and hovered impatiently, horns blaring, while security scans cleared each vehicle in its turn.

Ampris picked her way carefully, angling away from the passenger traffic to the cargo area. More and more transports were lining up, at least a dozen now. Remembering Elrabin’s advice, she looked them over in search of one carrying metals or energy-plasma canisters. None of them looked right.

She dodged another one pulling up and spied a cargo hauler parked on hover near a docking platform. Abiru workers, panting in the heat, were transferring a load of heavy crates to its bay.

Excitement leaped inside her. This was the only prospect in sight. She inched her way forward, aware from the corner of her eye that three transports were now flying through the gates, along with twice that many skimmers. No other vehicles pulled up behind them, however, and Ampris worried that she would be noticed if the traffic thinned any more.

Trying to be cautious and casual, Ampris skulked around the end of the docking platform. It was stacked with pods, crates, and cylinders awaiting transport. The cargo hauler itself looked almost full.

Crouched against a pillar, she kept her head level with the top of the platform and watched the workers. If any of them saw her, they gave no indication of it.

Her gaze moved to the hauler, gauging the distance. She would have to cross in the open. There seemed no way to climb aboard without being seen. She tipped back her head to look for any overhead scanners floating about. There was no supervision that she could see; that didn’t mean it wasn’t present.

Maybe the workers would ignore her. Maybe they wouldn’t sound an alarm if she stowed aboard.

Those were big maybes, she told herself, panting worriedly.

A hand grabbed her from behind, yanking her off her feet and dragging her backward.

Snarling in surprise, Ampris tried to twist free, but another set of hands seized her by the ankles, and she was lifted bodily off her feet. She saw this one, a Toth. For a moment she was frozen with fear. He was huge, even for one of his kind, and flies swarmed his head of matted dark hair. Grunting to his companion, who had her by her shoulders, the Toth said, “Now,” and together they slammed her hard against the ground.

The world spun around her and went momentarily black. Ampris could not hold in her grunt of pain. Fighting off unconsciousness, she glimpsed one of the dock-workers glancing down at her with complete indifference before resuming his job.

“Help me!” she shouted, but one of the Toths hit her in the jaw with a fist like a hammer. Pain exploded through her head, and again the world spun.

Through a blur, she could feel hands patting her expertly, hands ripping impatiently at her jerkin and stripping off her water skin and pack. Her old fighting instincts awakened, and she was suddenly driven back to consciousness by a surge of fury.

Roaring, she reached up and gripped the wrist of one of the Toths, snapping it.

He bellowed and slung himself around, dropping her pack and clutching his arm. Ampris sat up and tried to scramble free, but the other Toth butted her in the side with his massive head.

All the wind whooshed from her lungs. She collapsed, struggled up, whooping for breath, and tried to crawl under the dock. The Toth grabbed her crippled leg and dragged her out.

The pain blazed up her leg, making her yelp. She twisted around and swiped blindly with her claws, but the Toth hit her again, knocking her flat.

She lay there, heaving for air, unable to make her body move.
Fool,
she thought in a dim corner of her brain.
Should have been more alert for trouble.
She’d been caught flat-footed, like an arena trainee, and she was ashamed of herself.

A tug at her neck brought her around. The tug came again, and she realized the Toth was trying to take her Eye of Clarity. His comrade with the broken wrist grunted encouragement and bent to pick up her pack. Holding it by its broken strap, he said, “Take the necklace now. Get good price for it.”

“No!” she shouted, surging up and sinking her teeth into the arm of the Toth trying to take her necklace. He bellowed with pain and jerked back. Savagely, she didn’t let go, but gnawed and worried flesh and muscle, her strong jaws crunching down on bone. The taste of Toth blood filled her mouth, and then she was slung bodily to the side and slammed into one of the docking platform’s pillars.

The Toth pulled away from her, bellowing curses and gripping his bleeding arm. Ampris got to her knees, her eyes aflame, her mouth smeared with his blood. She roared, and the Toth ran off awkwardly, still holding his arm. Of his companion, there was now no sight.

She looked around, breathing so hard she thought she might pass out. She was coated with dirt and blood, and all her belongings were gone except her necklace. Desperately, she gripped it with shaking hands, and felt relief spread through her. She could bear losing everything but this.

Holding it calmed her. After a few seconds her spinning senses steadied, and she tucked it out of sight inside her jerkin. She drew in a deep breath, then another, and finally raised her head. The dockworkers were gone. The cargo hauler was just floating through the gates.

Dismay drove her to her feet. She swayed and nearly fell, but managed to catch herself against the side of the dock. Unable to believe it, she watched the cargo hauler pass from sight. The gates, sheathed in a glowing, sparking force field, slowly swung closed.

“No,” she whispered and spat in disgust to clear the taste of Toth blood from her mouth.

She glanced at the area which had been jammed with transports and skimmers only minutes before. They were gone as well. Backing her ears, Ampris straightened despite a sharp ache in her ribs and limped along the edge of the dock while keeping a wary eye out for scanners. Her lack of registration would identify her immediately as a renegade, and the bounty hunters would come after her.

At the end of the dock, she found a female Kelth lit, about half-grown perhaps, busy sweeping the platform clean of metal shavings and other debris.

“Hello,” Ampris said quietly. It hurt her ribs to talk. She pressed her hand gingerly to her side, hoping nothing was broken. “When will the next transport come through?”

The lit appeared to ignore her as she continued sweeping, but she glanced at Ampris from a corner of her eye. She was a skinny little thing, with brindled gray and brown fur that was falling out in patches down her arms. “You fought them Toths good,” she said in a voice even softer than Ampris’s. “Ain’t never seen Toths whipped before.”

Ampris winced. The way she hurt all over, she wasn’t sure she’d call it a victory.

“What about the transports?” Ampris asked. “How long do you think before another comes by?”

“Ain’t the way to get in the city,” the lit murmured and swept harder.