Gama and Hest: An Ahsenthe Cycle companion novella (The Ahsenthe Cycle) (6 page)

Five soumyo came through Reev’s main gate, two wearing signs of rank — the guides — and three in plain hipwraps and foot casings. The Reev-kin sang as the outsiders came slowly through the lines formed on either side of the gate, the strangers taking time to look at each Reev-kin and acknowledge them with a flash of nurturing pink. Gama’s throat glowed with the dark-red-blue of curiosity.

Gama
,
Hest
,
Frarm
, Reln sent when the visitors had made it through the lines and the Reev-kin had finished singing,
come
with
us
.

Hest glanced at her and she shrugged. The three fell in line behind the guides. Reln must have sent the message to all Reev’s corenta-kin since no one else tried to follow, though Gama knew her sisters and brothers must have been burning with curiosity.

The guides walked side by side but no one spoke aloud.

Reln swept them all inside his dwelling, gesturing with his chin. They settled onto pillows at his invitation. Gama’s stomach felt full of tiny, jumpy beastlets.

Reln nodded toward Trontin’s guide, who stood and introduced himself as Bren and his companion as Joh. Bren was shorter than either Reln or Kelroosh’s guide, and stocky. Well-fed. His skin was as red as the day-ending sky and his eyes the color of fertile soil. His voice, when he spoke, had an edge to it, as though sand was grinding in his throat. Joh’s skin was so light-red she almost had no color. At Bren’s nod, Joh pulled two small boxes from the tools belt at the top of her hipwrap and handed them to her guide.

“Corentas so rarely have the pleasure of meeting other kin along the way,” Bren said, his gaze sweeping over everyone in the room. “It’s a sorrowful state that has brought our three corentas together, but there still may be joy and new friendships in it. In our travels we pass an area in which the most marvelous stones lie. Please allow me to gift Reev and Kelroosh each with one, in hopes that these troubles will soon pass, we will go our separate ways again, and you will use the stone to be reminded of us, these times and how we triumphed.”

He handed one of the small boxes to Reln, and one to Kelroosh’s guide. Gama watched, her curiosity rising as they opened the boxes and each drew out a stone about the size of a hatchling’s fist. She’d never seen anything like it — crimson, yet so clear she could see Reln’s hand through it. Floating inside were flecks of silver, blue, and green. Gama didn’t know why, but the stone made her feel happy — and there’d been little of that lately.

Reln nodded toward the other corenta guide, a female with skin so dark-red it was almost brown, and she rose. She was tall, with long fingers on large hands. She wore an elaborately sewn shawl in every color Gama could imagine — her mark of rank. But her face was kind, and Gama immediately liked her.

She straightened her shawl and said, “I am Kinto.” She swept her eyes across two males sitting side by side. “These are my brothers, Cra and Pret.”

Cra and Pret looked much alike — same height and weight, same light-red skin, same dark-brown eyes. Gama was glad they didn’t wear matching hipwraps, or she wouldn’t have been able to tell them apart.

What
do
you
think
? she sent to Hest and Frarm, sure that the others were sizing them up the same way they were them — and think-talking to their corenta-kin as well. Thought-grains flew back and forth across the room.

The
pinkish
one
looks
nervous
, Hest sent.

Joh
,
from
Trontin
.
She
does
look
nervous
.
Any
guesses
why
?

Gama saw the obvious truth the moment she sent the question. These were soumyo who’d also seen things disappear. That’s why they’d come with their guides — to bring the witnesses together. She sent the thought to Hest and Frarm.

Maybe
no
one
believed
her
either
, Frarm sent.

Everyone
believes
us
now
, Hest sent.

Gama thought of the carding house and worried again for it. Had it been frightened? Was it frightened still, wherever it was? What could snatch up an entire structure with no more effort than she lifted a bucket of water?

Kinto held her stone in her outstretched palm. “We are touched, Bren, by your gift. The soumyo of Kelroosh will treasure it always.” She closed her long fingers around the stone and let her arms fall in front of her. “As Bren said, it is a sorrowful state that has brought us here together. There may be safety in this place, but safety is not guaranteed. We must find the source of the danger. We can’t defend against what we don’t know.”

Gama’s gaze flitted between the two leaders. Bren had fine manners, but Kinto of Kelroosh seemed more likely to get things done. If Reln partnered with Kinto, Gama was sure the two of them could find a way past the fear festering in the corenta-kin now.

“Hest and Gama,” Reln said, startling her from her thoughts. “I’ve told the guides about the carding house, which I witnessed, and a bit about what you saw. I’d like you to tell it in your own words.”

They told the story again, the words no easier to say the second time than they’d been the first. Their guests listened with little expression on their faces but their emotions spots showed the purple-gray of concern and the blue-red of anxiety.

“You were together?” Bren from Trontin asked.

Gama nodded. “But Frarm was alone.”

All eyes shifted to him. He told about the birds, his voice suddenly strong and confident. He didn’t hint that perhaps the birds had vanished into the clouds the way he had with Vonti. He knew what he’d seen as clearly as she and Hest did.

Kinto, the Kelroosh guide, said, “Cra and Pret have a similar tale.”

Cra’s neck glowed blue-red and he stared at his hands as if they were something new and unknown to him. Gama thought his anxiety came as much from shyness as anything. Pret did the talking.

“Cra and I were up early one morning,” Pret said, “before chore hour, and we decided to go to a nearby river and see if we could catch a grenlo or two. The reeds are thick by this river — or had been thick, the day before when we visited. When we arrived, not one reed thrust from the water. Nothing swam in the waters or crawled along the banks. It was as if someone had come along and taken everything live that was there, put it in a bag and carried it away.”

Gama’s head hurt, remembering the grain fields, and trying to imagine what could pluck up every reed, every beast that swam or crawled. Trying to think of why someone or something would do that.

Bren from Trontin lay his hand on Joh’s neck. Joh’s spots burst into color — orange-red of anticipation, blue-red of anxiety.

“Please tell your story,” Bren said.

The pinkish female covered her throat with her hand, but let it drop when she started talking. The color on her neck was as bright as before, and Gama wasn’t surprised that her voice quavered when she spoke.

“I was with my brothers in our dwelling. It was after night-meal. We were talking and playing a game — the three of us. Suddenly the air in the room took on a kind of shimmering, like pond water that’s been lightly disturbed by wind. Then my brother was gone. Vanished right in front of my eyes.”

Gama’s chest felt like a band had tightened around it. This answered Prill’s question — the soumyo were no safer than the beasts or birds.

Joh’s neck erupted in a new color — the pale-blue of despair. Bren stroked her neck, but she pushed Bren’s hand away and locked eyes with Gama. “My brother was gone. Is gone. Where did he go?”

Gama wished she had an answer for her.

Reln sighed and pulled himself up off his pillow. “We’ll be in contact,” he told the Kelroosh and Trontin guides. “Tell you anything we learn as soon as we learn it.”

Kinto and Bren rose and moved to the door, their kin following.

When they walked out, all the kin of Reev stood waiting outside the door. Gama judged by their anxious expressions that Reln’s dwelling had told the kin and structures everything said inside it. Wall likely had told the other corentas.

One of the male, Grik, stepped in front of Reln. “What are you going to do about it?” he asked. Demanded, more like. Subtlety and patience were never strong in him, but it was the question in every mind, and it needed an answer.

“We are all confused and frightened.” Reln’s eyes were on Grik but his voice loud enough for everyone to hear. “Our thoughts chase each other in useless circles and we may find ourselves caught in that fear. We may want to place blame. We must focus instead on solutions. Reach out to your corenta-kin with think-talking, so we remember that we are all one. Speak with the structures. Test your ideas. Build one thought upon another until the solution is found. For now, we are safe in this place. We have food enough to last us a while. We have time to think and plan.”

He swept his gaze across the soumyo standing before him. “All work will be suspended. Go to the communiteria and the storage houses and gather what you will need for a five-day wait. Any news from the other corentas will be shared among us all as soon as anything is known.”

A female standing next to Gama opened her mouth to speak. Reln silenced her with a look and strode through the crowd toward the communiteria. The soumyo parted for him, but stayed rooted where they stood.

“Come on,” she said to Hest. “Someone has to be first.”

They sidled their way through the crowd after Reln. Their sisters and brothers fell in behind.

-=o=-

Gama bolted awake to Home softly crooning
Kroot
kroot
to get her attention. The night was deep and dark. Home had never woken her at night before.

Frarm was with them again. He felt more comfortable with kin who’d also seen something strange and knew the truth of it in their hearts, he’d said. Gama had guessed that his dwelling-mates still loved him, but didn’t particularly want him around, as though seeing strange things might be catching. In the thin light, she could make out Frarm-and Hest-shaped lumps on their cots. Both slept fitfully, turning first to one side and then to the other, as though they couldn’t find a way to be comfortable.

What
is
it
? she sent to Home.

Something
is
here
, Home sent.

What
do
you
mean
—
something
?

I
can’t
say
.
There
are
no
words
,
no
pictures
I
can
send
you
.
But
something
is
here
.
I
feel
it
.

Her breath was shallow in her chest. Home was right. Something felt wrong with the room, with the air. Wrong in the same way that the shimmer in the sky was wrong. She couldn’t put words to it either, couldn’t describe what made her skin feel suddenly clammy, or the air seem cold and thick.

Hest rolled over and sat up, a movement of shadow in the room.
I
feel
it
too
.

The air grew thicker, colder, harder to breathe. Hest coughed, and Gama made out the quick movement of his hand covering his mouth, trying to stifle a second. It didn’t matter, though. Whatever was there saw them, or smelled them, or had some other way to track them. It knew every move they made — Gama felt that as true.

Frarm pulled his blanket tight around himself — a small movement that Gama could barely see in dim room
Why
is
it
so
cold
? Frarm sent.
I’m
shivering
.

Both
of
you
, she sent,
come
to
my
cot
.
I
think
we
should
be
close
,
keep
hold
of
each
other
.

Hest threw off his covers but walked slowly, as if afraid to bump into something in the empty space between his cot and hers. When he reached her, he sat gingerly and took her hand. She squeezed back and made sure they both had a firm hold.

You
come
too
,
Frarm
.

He slung his legs over the side of his cot, but froze there.

The air began vibrating, the individual bits bouncing against her skin. As cold as the room had felt before, it turned warm now. Sweat beaded on her scalp. She squeezed Hest’s hand tight.